


What a strange thing feelings are

by i_dont_have_a_name1984



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Androids, Crushes, F/M, Father-Daughter Relationship, Feelings, I Don't Even Know, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Reader-Insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-17
Updated: 2019-02-09
Packaged: 2019-08-25 03:25:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 30,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16653355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_dont_have_a_name1984/pseuds/i_dont_have_a_name1984
Summary: Torn up about what happened in the war with Thanos, Tony tries making another version of Peter. this doesn't help with the rest of the team let alone you, his daughter, seeing has it becomes an obsession. when Peter starts to malfunction it starts a long line of trial and error. will this family become one again or will it still be messed up as always?





	1. as in Mr.Starks daughter?

As I wait to get off the train I slip my backpack straps back on my shoulders. After this long ride and year away from home I just want to go to my room and lay in my bed. I say goodbye to the train attendant that helped me throughout the 5-hour ride and got out into the station. I pull my army green coat tighter around my shoulders, this station is cold. After I get to the main hall I start looking for familiar faces. “y/n!” I hear my mom's voice call out from behind me. I turn to see my mom, Steve, Thor, and Natasha standing with a small sign reading ‘y/n Stark’. I walk over towards them and meet my mom in a hug. She was holding on to me for dear life, I have to say “I still need to breathe” for her to let go. I look at Steve who is holding the sign and say “your supposed to do that at the airport” and give him a hug.  
“you’ve gotten taller.” Thor says as I hug him  
“that's what the body tends to do,” I give Natasha a hug too. “is dad here?” I can see my mom’s face fall as soon as I ask the question and she just says  
“he was caught up in the lab, and i-”  
“pepper tried her best” Steve puts his hand on my shoulder. I don’t even know why I asked  
“it’s ok mom, he never shows up. Just like grad, he’s held up in the lab.” she gives a small smile and I can see she’s still hurt so I hug her “it’s ok, really, I’m just happy to be home”.  
We go to the luggage belt to get my two big suitcases, as we walk I talk to the team. “So what have you all been doing since Christmas?” I asked to no one in general.  
“We have a new assistant. Your father made him. his name is Peter.” mom said turning a corner as we arrive at the belt.  
“How old is he?” if he’s my age I hope he’s cute. I go to pick up my five Louis Vuitton suitcases but Steve stops me, with a wave of his hand, we share the same looks we’ve been sharing for years when he does stuff for me. he knows I am perfectly able to do things by myself and I know he is just being nice.  
“About three days,” Steve says as he picks them up, putting them on one of the carts.  
“What? Wait, he’s a baby?” nat snorts at what I said as we walk beside each other, she gives me one more hug out of the blue.  
“No” she laughed “he’s a… pepper, what is he again?” she looks at mom. Mom walks beside us, putting her arm around me.  
“it’s a bionic-humanoid-assistant. He’s your father's latest creation.”  
“What!” I stop and look at them “why didn’t he tell me he was working on this, that sounds awesome!”. We spend the whole way home talking about what I’ve been doing for the past year at Elm academy, about my classes, my friends, my room. A Lot can happen in a year at boarding school.  
When we got back to the tower I was hit with a wave of air laced with the smell of cooking food and mechanical grease. The smell I knew as home. The smell I grew up with.  
“Why don’t you go to the lab and see your father and uncle Bruce?” my mom can’t help but give me one more hug as we walk through the door.  
She hated sending me away for that long. This past September it almost killed her to watch me board the train once again, just to leave for months, and I only get two weeks Christmas break. she wanted to homeschool me, she’s qualified, but dad said it’s better for me to be out of the house. No matter what I do “it’s always better for you to be out of the house”.  
“Will they want to see me?” I ask setting down my backpack and taking off my shoes.  
“Yes, go say hello, you can meet Peter while your up there, I’ll get someone to put your suitcases in your room for you.” with that last word from mom I leave the room and make my way to the office.  
I'm excited to show them what I learned. Every day at school I was at the lab late into the night working on getting to a level where I can understand what dad and Bruce are talking about. I streamed all five of my dad’s TED talks on youtube and read all seven of Bruce's books, with the help of my teacher of course. Mr.Keller was almost as determined to do this as me. He took a few of the students, me being one of them, to three four hour lectures about electrical engineering and physics. I’m pretty sure I was the only one to pay attention to the whole thing, I even saw Mr.Keller doze off a couple times. I even participated in a robotics competition, we had to battle another robot, whoever's brokedown first won. Our team, which was all boys except me, built this awesome robot. it had lasers and saw blades, that was all the boy’s stuff, I worked on the frame. It had to be strong enough to withstand all the other robots but not heavy enough to overheat the motors, it had to be big enough to hold all the circuit boards and the four motors the boys insisted on having even though I told them five times we only needed one, but small enough to avoid the other shots. We painted the body black with white stripes all over the weapons. I spent a lot of time on it.  
Let’s just say I was very excited to tell them how much I accomplished.  
I walk into the lab looking around and see my dad, and one of the guys who acted like my dad, Bruce. They both turn around when I said “guess who’s back”. Bruce coming over and giving me a hug, now Good old dad is already turned around looking back at what they are working on.  
“I missed you so much.” I look over to my dad, only seeing the back of his head. Bruce sees my face fall and looks back at dad to and says “tony! y/n’s back! Come say hello.” dad puts up a finger saying ‘one second’. I go over and peer over his shoulder.  
“Hi, dad, whatcha’ up to?” I say looking down to the computer screen tabletop full of complicated equations. About a year ago I would’ve thought they were writing in a different language but now I could read it.  
“It’s complicated, you wouldn’t understand, higher level stuff,” he says as he writes one more down.  
“That last one is wrong, there, it should be 6 to the power of 0.56, not 56.” he looks at me and back at his work.  
“No, it’s not I wrote this myself,”  
I take his pen and swipe my hand to the left moving his work to the side, making it smaller. Bruce came behind me as I started writing, I'm going faster than he was and I know he knows it.  
“If you use order of operation, which you did up to this point, where you accidentally flipped these, don’t worry, simple mistake, happens to everyone. Now maybe if you spent a few seconds and gave your daughter a hug after a year away, you would’ve caught it” I circle the equation, “so the answer is 6 to the power of 0.56” I slam the pen down and storm out of the lab.

“Oh my god, she’s right,” Bruce says, Reading the equations over again. He looks at Tony, sitting in the stool beside him “she really caught that.”  
“It was a simple mistake anyone could have caught it.” Tony says bringing back his work to the center of the table “how did I not catch it?”  
“She got five medals, and honours at graduation and was the valid victorian, she really missed you there,” Bruce says. He kept working.  
“I was busy.” he turns around and walked to the other side of the lab. “She didn’t have to storm out” he pulls up another screen.  
“She’s mad. You didn’t even say hello and she’s been gone for a year” he looks at how Tony was avoiding his eyes.  
“Can we finish our job please.” bruce's sighs in defeat and gets up walking over to do the job.

I walk down the halls towards my room. Knowing the way by heart. Turning corners and going down hallways lost in my thoughts.  
No matter how hard I try he never shows me what I just want to hear. Why does he have to ignore me? He didn’t show up to pick me up.  
I turn the corner and run straight into something, falling back, hitting the floor “shit.”  
“My apologies, I did not see you there.” I look up and see a brown haired guy, he has brown eyes and was wearing a white shirt and black pants. The shirt had a stark logo on it and I could see his white tennis shoes were so clean they had to be new. He stuck out his hand to help me up. “I hope I did not cause you any harm.”  
I take his hand and he pulls me up. “It’s cool, are you new? Last time I was here I didn’t see you.” he's looking in my eyes, in almost a creepy way, it’s almost like he’s analyzing me. I have to look up, he’s about five inches taller than me.  
“Hello, my name is Peter, I am a bionic-humanoid-assistant created by Mr.Stark and Mr.Banner,” he put his hand out for me to shake.  
I take his hand once again “so you're like an android, that's awesome.” he pauses for a second.  
“No, I am a genetically perfect human with cybernetic enhancement in several parts in my brain. I was created cell by cell and strung together in the machine invented by ms.shuri.” that’s my dads. The first thing he programs into this guys head is to tell everyone he made him. “I hadn’t seen you before either, may I have your name?”  
“It’s y/n.” he looks pretty cute for being a robot.  
“y/n as in Mr.Starks daughter?” he tilts his head to the side slightly.  
“The one and only.” I think he looks down the hall behind me for a microsecond before looking back at me.  
“I was told to bring you to the lab when you got here. Mr.stark wanted to talk to you.” I roll my eyes and start to walk away, down the hall, getting farther away from Peter. I don't want to have to deal with that.  
“I already talked to dear old dad. well, sorta, but define talk.” I turn the corner and leave him alone in the hallway, watching me leave.


	2. Dinner is not the time for fighting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> you get to know Peter a little more.

I walk all the way to my room in a daze thinking about what I am going to do when I get there. I guess I’ll unpack all my stuff, put away all my uniforms for the summer, just to re-pack all of them for the next year. Of course, I brought some normal clothes too, when we are just chilling in our dorms on the weekend or going to the cafeteria for a quick snack. All of the stuff from my dorms are in the five suitcases so it will take a few hours to put it all away and I want to finish it before I go to bed. I Finally get to the door of my room. The Avengers building is sorta like my dorms at school but we have bigger rooms and no roommates, and the guy's rooms aren't across the buildings from the girls.  
Our rooms here all have the main bedroom and a bathroom. The basic structure of the room is one wall is a floor to ceiling window, one wall with your door to the hallway, one with the door to the bathroom and your closet and one with a tv on it. Our closets are pretty big too, sliding doors, enough space for two normal people’s closets, I also have a set of drawers in the closet to store pyjamas, underwear, stuff like that. The bathrooms are beautiful, a rain shower head in the shower, which is the size of the full bathroom in my dorm, a big bathtub with jets, heated floors, all white and grey tile, the sink is huge, and a lot of drawers to hold all of my toiletries in, all the towels here are white, dad hates when people have mismatching towels, the toilet cover even goes up when you walk up to it, how cool is that? I’ve done my best to add a cozy feel to the bathroom to match the look of the bedroom with some wooden shelves. We also all have personal heating and cooling units in each room, we can have our room the way we like it. All the bedrooms have something customized about them, for example, Steve has the American map carved into one of his walls, Natasha has copper pipes in her bathroom, thor has wooden beams going across his ceiling, I have repurposed wood from a barn to make these amazing floors. I have two shipping pallets under my mattress to hold my bed up and go with the whole feel of the room, my mattress has a temperature control system built in it and it's Tempurpedic as well.  
I pull out my phone and start Snapchatting. I’ve been Snapchatting my life for the past year, it just started with one but it grew to be doing stories on Instagram and snapchat a lot, I’ve grown a pretty big following. I unlock the door with the fingerprint scan on the doorknob and enter the room, the lights turning on and the blinds sliding up from the windows filling the room with natural light.  
“Welcome back y/n,” I hear Linda say in her robotic voice. I hated saying FRIDAY so I call her Linda.  
“Hello, miss me?” I ask still Snapchatting.  
“It was much quieter with you not here” the snap ends and I upload it to my story. I see the little-stacked skyscraper of my suitcases by my closet, all five of them. I flop on to my bed, feeling the fur blanket and white thick knit blanket I placed over my white duvet before leaving, I always put the white blanket on top, So I can feel the wool when I lay down. I cleaned before I leave so I didn't have to come back to a mess. I have pillows arranged nicely, light grey and white, with some black detailing. my Legs still hanging off the bed my feet still on the floor. I kick off my shoes and pull off my socks, putting my feet on the grey rug, scrunching my toes in the shaggy fabric.  
I turn my head to the side and look out the window, slightly blocked by my bedside table, it has a lantern with an electric candle inside the glass and gold frame.  
“Ms.potts has asked me to call you to dinner,” Linda says, I pick back up my phone and check it.  
“I was going to eat in my room after I unpack,” I say rolling over pulling the white blanket around me as my face lands in the pillows.  
“She says that the whole team is eating dinner like a family, in the dining room, the meal is spaghetti and meatballs, prepared by mr.odinson.” he really did that, and mom really wants to eat as a family. I guess why not.  
“Tell her I am on my way” I get up and grab my phone running out of the room, not bothering to put on shoes, the place is so clean here you could eat off the floor. As I pass one of the doors they open, Steve comes out of his room and closes the doors behind him. I slow down and stop to wait for him.  
“Hi Steve, on your way to dinner?” he turns and looks at me, giving a warm smile. The same one he gives me every time he sees me.  
“Hey y/n, yes I am, nat says Thor is getting good, lets hope.” we start walking side by side to the kitchen. “Did you see your dad?” he asks reluctantly  
“Yep.,” I say quietly. Even though I’m looking down the hallway I can feel he is looking at me.  
“How was it?” his tone was warry.  
Steve has been here every time dad hasn’t, he was there when my first boyfriend broke up with me, he was the one to scare my date to the prom, he was at all my dance recitals, he was there when I broke a bone, all three times, he was at my robotics competition, he was there when I was having panic attacks, when I had chicken pocks, when I took my first steps, when I jumped into the deep end of the pool the first time, my first time blowing a bubble with gum. He told me stories about all of his missions, about all his old friends he lost, he said I was just like his friend Bucky, he said I was just as hard working. This man even helped potty train me, I mean chasing a naked toddler around the tower yelling ‘just one pee pee in the potty’ must’ve taken some guts.  
“The usual, he said less than ten words, none of which were hello.” we walk into the kitchen, hitting a wall of aroma. The table is set up all fancy like. All moms goods chain was on the table, the gold cutlery, flowers everything looked like a five-star restaurant. There was already salad, roasted vegetables, and little pizza bites. “I didn’t know we were having Thanksgiving?”  
“Our first meal together after a year has to be a nice one.” mom finishes placing the last plate as she says this,  
“It's only been since March break,” my dad says, Natasha smacks the back of his head.  
“That was only four days, it’s been a year since she’s been home for summer.” she lowers her voice “can you stop being so negative, this is your daughter we are talking about.” I look at the floor feeling the lump in my throat getting a little bigger. I take a seat in beside mom. Across from dad.  
“I made spaghetti and ball meat for dinner tonight,” Thor says coming into the room with a serving dish in his hands. One with the pasta dish and one with garlic breadsticks  
“Its meatballs thor” steves words are slurred by laughs and we all share a chuckle.  
The meal is delicious, Natasha was right, Thor's getting much better. He wanted to master the art of Midgardian cooking and Natasha said she would help him.  
“Whos that last place for?” my dad nods at the empty spot beside me.  
“It’s for Peter. He should be down here any minute now,” she says taking a bite of her garlic bread.  
“Why is he eating with us?” dad looks like he just got punched in the face.  
“He needs food to live, so why not eat when everyone else is eating? He is a human”  
“Braley” and with that Peter walked in. he looked startled by everyone just staring at him right as he walked in.  
“Hello. I was called to join the meal” he said a little sheepishly.  
“Yes,” my mom pointed to the seat next to me “there's your spot, come, help your self” he sits down and looks at all the food in front of him, all waiting to be put on his plate. I decide to help him out.  
“Would you like me to make your plate, I know the best combos” he looks at me like I said the most shocking thing ever.  
“I don’t want to cause you any worry-”  
“Oh please, I don’t mind.” I grab his plate and start scooping food on, him just looking at my face as I fill the plate. My dad watches peter just as close as he’s watching me, his brow furrowed. “Here you go, it’s really good when you scoop the pasta on the breadstick and eat it like a sandwich.” I put the plate back in front of him  
“Thank you i-”  
“He can’t taste it.” my dad says interrupting peter. “We blocked that part of his brain off, it was part of the section we firewalled off. To make him better function.”  
“How is not being able to taste going to make him function better?” I can hear my voice getting sharper  
“It keeps him focused on his job, not getting distracted by little things,” I heard Bruce scoff and we all looked at him “what?” my dad was getting defensive.  
“What we did was borderline unethical. We took away all his ability to feel things, all he can do is do what we tell him, he can’t even taste the food we give him. How is that right.” the table was getting tense. “What was the point of making him human if we just take away the good parts of being a human.”  
I look at Peter “you really can’t taste?” I ask and he nods. He almost looks ashamed.  
“Our goal wasn’t to make a person, our goal was to create a living assistant, I had a goal and I met it, who cares if he can’t taste, it’s not like he knows what he’s missing.”  
“Why don’t we all calm down, I don’t want to cause Mr.stark any distress,” Peter says.  
“See he does feel something, he knows when we're fighting. Now, will all of you back off and stop attacking me. It’s not like any of you care about this anyways”  
“Tony!” Steve snaps, slamming his fist on the table, I almost jump out of my skin. “Don’t you dare say we don’t care.” everyone looks shocked at the volume of Steve's voice “we all tried to help you for the past 18 years. You’re the one to pull away. You’re the one who can't let go of things”  
“This has nothing to do with that!” my mom grabs my hand under the table, she hated any conflict.  
“Sure it doesn't” Bruce's voice was dripping with sarcasm “just take one look at Peter here and tell us it’s not about that day.”  
“You have no clue about what you're talking about.” my dad says.  
“Why don’t we just change the subject,” I say trying to calm everybody down. It seems to work on Bruce and Steve but my dad wasn’t having it.  
“Stay out of it y/n, this has nothing to do with you!” he yells. Everyone gets quiet.  
I feel the lump threaten to come to the surface but I push it back down and say “I’ve lost my appetite, may I be excused?” before anyone can answer I put my napkin on the table and get up “thank you for the meal thor, you’re getting really good.” I get up and walk out of the room, waiting until I am out of the room to start running the tears blurring my vision.  
I slam the door to my room running to the bed. I need to curl up in my blankets and bed before I let it hurt me. I need the white yarn to block out the sound. I need to feel the warmth around me. Before I let it get to me more than it already has.  
I hear the door open, someone walking in. I keep my head under my pillow and say “leave me alone steve, I don't care what he said,”  
“It’s peter.” his voice is insecure. I bring my head up and look at him. He has that same look on his face that looks like he is analyzing me. “Mr.stark sent me to make sure you were ok.” I sit up and look at him. I look at every part of his face, taking in every little detail. How did they get him to look so real?  
“What are you?” I ask to realize a second later that that might be mean “no offence.”  
“No it’s ok, I can explain it if you want, exactly what it took to make me” he looks around my room. That's when I notice my bags. Shit. I still haven't unpacked, I should do that now.  
“You can sit here,” I pat the bed beside me “do you mind if I unpack as you explain?” I get up from my bed feeling a little better now. I turn on the lights and Peter looks around once more. I can't tell what he’s thinking. “What’s wrong?”  
“No, nothing, it’s just your room is interesting,” he says looking at the fairy lights I have strung across the room and the love sac in the corner. “My room is not decorated.” he sits on the bed where I was sitting moments ago.  
“What? Why?” I pull one of the suitcases down from the stack and kneel down to unlatch the brown leather straps around the black case.  
“I’m guessing the creativity portion of my brain is inactive as well” I stop unzipping the case and look at him.  
“They didn’t let you decorate your room?”  
“I think I’m allowed but I just haven’t had the want to.” I turn back to the case and fully unzip and open it revealing my clothes. I start putting each item of clothing back where it’s supposed to go one by one while listening to Peter talk.  
“Mr.stark used a machine created by ms.shuri.”  
“Who is Shuri  
“She was appointed as the queen of Wakanda after the death of her brother T’challa, the former king. Well, he used that machine to create what some might call a black slate.”  
“How?  
“It strung each line of DNA cell by cell. Creating the body. I was basically a big baby. Not knowing anything. Not even knowing how to walk. Then he and Mr.banner took the mental processing of a person and, in a way, imputed it into my brain.”  
“How did he get someone else's mental processing?”  
“He had a former teammate that would be about my age, they were able to get almost a complete map of how this boy functioned threw something Mr.stark called the baby monitor protocol. Threw his mask they were able to copy the way he processes different events. They also got many different DNA samples from that suit too, hair, sweat, and blood in some cases, he apparently had the suit since age 15 so there was quite a lot of skin oil too.”  
“How did they block off part of your brain function though?”  
“I have a bionic implant in my amygdala, Parietal lobe, limbic system, and most of the left side of my brain that blocks certain signals. It’s almost like a cap keeping the water in a bottle. I was told something can cause the implant to be rendered useless, but I’m not sure what that would be.”  
“That's crazy. How long did it take?”  
“Three years for the whole process but just the body took one year. I’m sure you can find the lab tapes in the lab, all the tests they did, all the trials and errors that occurred. I’m sure they recorded video and audio.”  
“Do you think?”  
“We can go see.” he gets up and goes to the door.  
“Now?” I look at my silver Gucci watch “it’s nine o'clock, I think that's a little late. To do it now, maybe in the morning”I need to start my first night at home pampering routine, take a shower, put on a face mask, do the worst dance moves in the mirror as I blast some music.  
“Well have a good night y/n, I hope you feel better.” he opens the door and walks out but before closing it he said “I don't have any idea what you are feeling but I am sorry you and Mr.stark aren't getting along, if you ever want to talk about anything I would be happy to help, listen to you for a bit.” he gave a smile.  
“Thank you, Peter, have a good night.”  
“Of course y/n” he closes the door and I can hear him walk down the hall.  
I get up, walking to the bathroom, pulling off my shirt and slipping down my leggings as I turn on the shower. “Linda, play my shower playlist on shuffle.”  
“Would you like the disco ball?”  
“Is that even a question?”  
“Of course y/n, get ready for a boogie”

I leave y/n’s room and walk down the hall. The time I’ve spent with y/n has been perplexing, to say the least, none of the other’s have seemed so concerned about my wellbeing over my performance. I make my way Towards the lab where I can hear Mr.stark and ms.romanov talking. I stop outside the door and listen.  
“Who does he think he his, telling me how to parent my kid. Last thing I checked she wasn’t his daughter.” Mr.stark was speaking louder than usual. I can see the fight during dinner had affected him. Does it bother Mr.banner and Mr.rogers that I can not taste? “And how did I telling y/n not to get involved make her cry? I was trying not to get her hurt by keeping her out of it”  
Ms. Romanov just stayed silent, as Mr.stark talked. I open the door to the lab and enter. I think it will be best if I keep the fact that I heard any of that to myself.  
“Good Evening Mr.stark, ms.romanov, I had just come to tell you y/n is feeling better. She is in her room getting ready for bed, she asked me to leave so she could have a shower.”  
“What did you two talk about?” Mr.stark stopped pacing and looked at me intently.  
“She asked what I was so I told her about how you made me, she felt concern over the fact that I couldn’t be creative.”  
“I’m going to bed, good night Tony, you two peter.” she looks at me softly, almost sadly, opened her mouth to say something but changed her mind and closed it. Leaving the room she stuck her middle finger up at tony which earned a small laugh from Tony and he repeats the gesture. From what I’ve learned that is a rude thing to do but they do it as if it was a wave. It is strange. Ms.romanov left the lab, the door sliding shut behind her.  
“Of course she was concerned about that, she’s y/n” Mr.Stark sat down in the stool at the desk and put his head in his hand, pushing his palms into his eyeballs. “I do the best I can, with y/n I mean. I try and get her the best of the best. I know she hates that school, I mean I would hate it too. It’s just I can’t let her turn out as I did, all the things I’ve done.” he sighed pulling his hands down his face  
“I’m not quite sure what you mean sir.”  
“I just wish I could go to all of her things, I’ve wanted to go to one of her dance recitals for years but I’ll just mess them up if I go, cause something to go wrong, or just make everyone angry.”  
“I’m sure you are just over processing things in your head sir.”  
“Why am I even telling you these things. It doesn't even matter, just please make sure her time here is good, I hate sending her to that school, seeing her so unhappy, I want to make the break a good one.” he gets up and walks to the door “ I should get ready for bed too, see you in the morning Peter, will you tidy up the lab while we are all sleeping. Thanks.” he left, leaving me in the big lab alone. I look around the room, seeing papers and supplies everywhere, I start putting everything back where it should. While I work I let my mind wander.  
I can’t help but drift to thoughts of y/n. Her outfit seemed really fitting. The coat was perfect for the small rain that happened right before she arrived. She was really nice to me, a different kind of nice that the rest of the Avengers. All of the others treat me like I'm a sad memory. She acted like I was a real person like I was just one of her friends. I wonder what it would be like to be at her school, sit with her at lunch, walk with her down the hall. This feeling is so confusing.

“Linda, you can turn off the music now and can you put ‘princess bride’ on the tv please?” I slip off my slippers and get under my comforter as the movie starts playing. I have this obsession with movies about love right now. Whether it's a rom-com or a full-on mushy romance I just can’t get enough.  
As I watch I can feel my thoughts move away from the movie. They flow to peter. He was cute, like really cute. I mean my dad did a pretty good job. I feel like I've seen him before, somewhere on Instagram. He’s super nice too, I can picture him going to my school, laughing with him at lunch, going down the halls. I wonder what the thing is that can break his implants. I wonder if he has a six pack? Or the V? I wonder if he has a-NO! I'm not going to think about that now. that's none of my business. I feel my eyelids getting heavier.  
I wonder what happened after I left the dinner table. I felt bad for making it so awkward. Maybe it will be better in the morning. Until then I am going to take a dip in the dream pool.


	3. It was just a joke

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter's getting more and more real.

“Good morning y/n. The time is 9 o’clock. And there is a slight chance of rain showers” even though she has a monotone tone Linda's voice sounded too cheery. “Would you like me to start the coffee in the kitchen?”  
“Mmmmmmmmm” Linda perfectly translates my grown to what it meant. A title wave of a yes.  
“Of course y/n, an extra large coming up”I get out of my bed and slowly make my way out of the room. I go into my bathroom and brush my teeth, pulling my hair, which is at the moment going every-which-way, into the cleanest ponytail I can. I’m pretty sure it is against the law to leave the bathroom without doing about a million weird faces in the mirror and I don’t want to get arrested so this will just take a minute.  
The hallways are cold as usual so I have to go back into my room to get that knit sweater that Thor made me for Christmas. It took him a while to make, it has a big Mjolnir on the front, it’s too big for me, he used his own measurements, but I love it anyway. I don't get why this place is so cold. It's the middle of summer and we don’t need this place to be one big freezer  
As I walk closer to the kitchen door I can hear the coffee machine sing the little chime that signal the coffee is ready. I can see the foamy goodness in the lavender mug, steam flowing into the crisp morning air as I walk through the door. No one’s in here so I can drink in peace. I grab my mug and take it to the table, holding it by the handle, careful not to burn my fingers.  
“Hello y/n,” Peter said from the doorway making me jump out of my skin  
“Holy fuck!” I drop my coffee, the cup smashing on the ground. I jump away from the hot coffee burning my toes, “shit  
“I am so sorry, I didn't mean to scare you.” he rushed over, grabbing a towel as he ran.  
“It’s ok-whoa!” Peter picked me up, setting me on the island next to the sink. He wraps the towel around my feet and goes to the fridge grabbing one of the million ice packs we keep in there at all time. He takes the towel from around my feet and wraps the ice pack, handing it to me.  
“This will soothe the burning, did you get cut?” he asks, looking at my legs checking for bleeding.  
“I’m fine peter, it was just coffee.” he turns away from me grabbing a roll of paper towels and went to the spill. He picks up the big chunks of porcelain, throwing them in the trash.  
“My, apologies, I did not intend on scaring you,” he takes a long run of paper towels and ripped them off laying them on the spill.  
“Peter, it’s fine, we should really put a bell on you though, sneaking around all the time.” he scoops the wad of dirty paper and shards of the mug up and threw it in the trash as well. He walks back over to me.  
“If that is necessary I will ask Mr.stark-”  
“It was a joke peter, I was kidding, you’re are supposed to laugh if you find it funny” I chuckle at his confused face.  
“Oh, I will add jokes to the database.” the first thing he did was to physically pick me up and take me out of harm's way, that was really sweet. None of the guys at my school would’ve done that, they would’ve just laughed. “I’ll make you another coffee, just give me a moment.”  
“Why thank you.” he turns and starts making another one to replace the one smashed across the floor. “How was your night?”  
“I cleaned up the lab if that's what you mean.” he starts grinding beans, the buzzing stopping about thirty seconds later.  
“I meant how did you feel about it? Like did you like it?” he really doesn't have people ask him things like this?  
“I guess it was good, I am just happy to finish the tasks Mr.stark wants me to do.”  
“Do you like doing what people tell you?” the coffee starts brewing, flowing in the cup, slowly.  
“I don't know what you mean by that.” I can see he is getting a little antsy, fidgeting with a stray bean on the table.  
“Do you feel angry that you have to do everything people tell you?” I press the matter, it really doesn't seem right.  
“I don’t like it, nor, dislike it, I don't know how to feel. Am I supposed to dislike it?” the way he answers is like I am stressing him out.  
“Never mind, I was just curious.” I quickly change the subject. The coffee is done, he picks up and gives it to me.  
“Careful, it’s hot” I set it on the counter and look back at him. There is something about him I can trace. Something that seems familiar, something that I swear I know.  
“Thank you, Peter, you really didn’t have to do that, I could've done it myself” I touch peter’s chest, wow he is really fit. I swear I see his eyes flashed around before joining mine again.  
“It was nothing, I’ve got to go, Mr.stark is calling me” he backs away from me. I didn’t hear anything, does he have a call button in his head?  
“Oh, ok, well see you around” he is already gone before I finish the sentence.

I get out to the hallway as quickly as I can. I’m not sure why but I had the sudden urge to get out of there. I’m not sure why I even picked her up, I set her on the table like she was a baby, maybe one of my circuits is malfunctioning. Good thing I am going to the lab.  
When I get there I see Mr.banner is in the lab by himself. I was sure he was going to be angry due to the fight yesterday but they seem friendly once again.  
“Mr. Banner, I am sure one of my implants is malfunctioning, would you like to do an exam?” he was writing on one of the tablets.  
“Oh? What happened?” he took off his glasses and face me.  
“Well I frightened y/n this morning, causing her to drop her coffee, the mug broke and the hot coffee started burning her toes.”  
“And what did you do?” the tone in his voice was curious enough.  
“She was not wearing any shoes so I picked her up and set her on the table so she didn’t cut herself on any of the shards, I got her an ice pack to treat the burns already caused, after making sure she wasn’t hurt and cleaning up the coffee, I made her a fresh one.” I wait for him to freak out, I wait and wait for something that never came.  
“That’s it?”  
“Yes”  
“Nothing happened, it’s fine,”  
“Yes but-”  
“You are fine peter, now go help one of the other’s I’m working” he turned around and continued to work. I guess I was over analyzing once again. I turn on my heels and leave the lab. I’ll go to the den, there is always someone there that needs help. As I approach I can hear Mr.stark and mr.barton playing video games, I'm pretty sure it is a form of accuracy game.  
“Ha! Take that barton, your skills don't come in handy with the Wii.” Mr.stark is most likely more skilled in this game than mr.barton.  
“My remote is not connecting properly.” he's hitting the controller against his hand.  
“Do you hear that in the distance? It's the excuse train coming.” Mr.stark laughs.  
“Hello Mr.stark, mr.barton.” they’re both looking at me. Mr.barton looks at me with the usual look of dislike.  
“Jesus Tony, that's thing is still running?” he got up from the table and walks to the bar to the left of me.  
“He is our assistant.” Tony seems to be thirsty as well seeing as how he got up and joins him at the bar, both pouring big glasses of the deep amber fluid.  
“I was wondering if any of you needed any assistance, mr.banner asked not to be disturbed.” after he finishes the drinks mr.barton pours another glass “may I say it is only 10 o’clock in the morning, sir.”  
“What’s it trying to say?” mr.barton approaches me in a quite a aggressive manner, knocking over his cup on to the floor, smashing it, grabbing my collar “I can pull you apart piece by piece android, say one more thing like that and you’ll have a one way ticket to the dump.” I didn’t do anything, I was just telling him the time. I don't react.  
“Hey Clint, calm down, he didn’t mean anything, it’s part of his job. Come on, Let's play another round.” Mr.stark put his hand on his shoulder, pulling him away from me. “Clean this up Peter.” for the second time today I start cleaning up a broken cup and the splattered contents. They start playing the game once again.  
“This stupid Wii golf is so buggy, I can't make a single shot.” mr.barton is getting frustrated once again.  
“Here this will make you laugh. A photon checks into a hotel and is asked if he needs any help with his luggage. He says, No, I'm travelling light.” he said the joke and I couldn’t help but snort, letting out a chuckle. I could hear the two men stop moving and talking, both looking at me. “Did you just laugh at the joke I made?”  
“it was really quite funny Mr.stark” I stood up and threw the wad of paper towels in the trash.  
“We took humour out I thought.” Mr.stark was looking at the ceiling trying to remember something.  
“y/n told me about jokes this morning, she made one and told me what they were.” I lace my hands behind my back “is anything else necessary before I go?”  
“Go clean up my room,” mr.barton said facing the tv. Mr.barton was by far the one who hated me the most. He always appears angry when talking to me.  
“Right away sir” I left the room. Maybe after I clean up mr.barton's room I’ll be able to assist y/n with something, she is by far more pleasant to be around.

“Phil is here for your dinner planned y/n you were asked to get ready two hours ago.” mom came into my room looking for me. I was in the bathroom getting ready. Phil Coulson, our good family friend, had arrived for our annual catch up dinner. Mom had pressured me into wearing something nice ‘to look good at the restaurant.’ she wanted me to wear a dress but I compromised with black pants a white top and a dusty purple coat, it went down past my butt to give a posh vibe, the only thing I said I had to wear was my pair of white converse, they go with anything. I came out of the bathroom and saw my mom “you look great.” she says.  
“Thanks, sorry, I was watching ‘it happened one night’ that movie’s so good, have you seen it?” she laughs a little at me rushing around trying to find my bag.  
“no, I’ve not, now go, he is waiting in the lobby.” we leave my room and she walks to the lab, the opposite hall to where I start walking down. When I get to the lobby I can see most of the team there. phil sitting on one of the benches, they are standing around him like it’s story time.  
“Hello y/n, how are you today?” the others parted so I could see him.  
“I’m good yourself?” he smiles and put up his hand and pushes against his knee to stand up. He makes that breath that you make when your back hurts, you know the one.  
“As good as an old man like me can be. Your father was just telling me about his newest invention. It sounds very interesting.” I can see my dad is frustrated. “Are you ready to go?”  
“I am,” I follow him to the door where his car is waiting. The whole drive I ask him to tell me stories about how my dad was before I was born, he used to work with him so he knows all the good details.  
“Here we are!” he pulls into the parking lot.  
“This is where we’re going?” I open my door and get out.  
“Do you really think I would want to go to a fancy restaurant?” he opens the doors to a go-karting place.  
“Welcome to auto racers, the fastest karts in new york.” the teenage employee said in a bord tone looking at his computer screen, he was playing candy crush. “How can I help you today?”  
“We need the track for 18 laps,” Phil said and the guy looked at us with a deadpan face.  
“It is just the two of you, you need at least 6 people to have the track to yourself.”  
“But we can-”  
this is getting us nowhere, I have an idea. I take out my phone putting them up towards the computer, swiping my finger up, connecting to the database in seconds. I go to his Instagram to look for something I can use. I go through his profile, nothing. his recommended, nothing. His search history got it, the first profile is me, he follows me. I follow him back, quickly covering up that I just did it.  
“That's where I know you from. Instagram, I follow you.” he looks at me, breaking the fake coolness for the first time.  
“You do?” he pulls out his phone, checking his follower list. I can see his eyes widen when he sees my username. “Oh my god, you do.”  
“You must’ve missed when I followed you. Too bad we can’t race, it would’ve been a great post” I say with a really long loud sigh.  
“Wait, It’s not busy, I can let you go on, but we have a birthday coming in 30 minutes, you’ll have to be off the track by then.” he looked a little worried.  
“Ah that's perfect, remind me to tag you,”


	4. Time to catch up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You guys have a chat about Peter.

“That was so fun!” I shout as we exit through the checker print doors. We spent the whole 18 laps driving like maniacs, full speed, sliding, full stunt driving the whole time.  
“I think we gave that poor boy a heart attack. He looked like he was going to get fired, as soon as we left. Lucky he got that photo with you,” Phil was getting old but in no way did he act like it. He was like the fun uncle in our family. “Where would you like to eat? Burgers or pizza?”  
“oh whatever you prefer, I’m good with anything.” he knew I would say that, and I knew he knew what I wanted, and I knew he knew that I knew he would just choose what I wanted. I think I just confused myself.  
“Burgers it is.”

There, everything is done, All clean. I’m starting to gather that mr.barton is not the neatest of team members, there was clothing all over the floor and the bathroom looked like a tornado went thru it. I’m not sure who the women and children in the broken framed photos are but I replaced the shattered glass.  
I leave the room, being sure to lock the door on the way out. As I walk down the hall I can hear the team in the den, I can hear the sound of ice being moved around, they must be drinking. When I enter the den I can see they are all here, they are all playing pool. The pool tables being used to their full use.  
“Look who it is! The robot!” mr.barton shouts and the whole team looks at me. I could see in their eyes that I was not welcome. I walk up to him.  
“I finished cleaning your room Mr.barton,” I look at the bar and saw a few empty bottles, only mr.barton, Mr.stark and ms.romanov, have glasses so I’m guessing they were the ones to drain them.  
“Good, now get out of here.” I can smell the alcohol on his breath. he picks up his pool cue and got ready to play, the others going back to talking. I felt a burning in my stomach, I can feel my heart getting faster and a lot of thoughts come into my head.  
Why are you being so rude? It’s not my problem you can’t take care of yourself. You have no right to treat me like that.  
“I replaced the broken picture frames, they appeared as if you punched them.” the room went silent and mr.barton turns to me slowly.  
“What are you trying to say?” he's gripping the cue tightly, with both hands.  
Mr.stark tries to step in but before he could say anything I say. “You might want to take care of your stuff a little more sir” mr.barton swang the cue and hit me across the head. I feel a sting in the left side of my head, right above my ear. I step back, trying to keep my balance. I stumble back into mr.banner, he keeps his hands on my shoulders, helping me remain standing.  
“Clint, what the hell?” Mr.stark pulls the cue out of his hand and looks back at me “go to the lab peter, now!” I straighten up and blink my eyes, getting my vision focused again. I walk out of the lab, swaying a bit.  
“do you need me to help you” Steve goes to stand, but I put my hand up.  
“No, I am fine Mr.Rogers” I keep walking down the hallway.

“Here is the double cheeseburger, waffle fries, with extra ketchup on the side.” the waitress says holding the two plates.  
“Over here.” Phil put up his hand up in a small salute, the girl put the plate in front of him.  
“And the pizza burger with fries, house sauce on the side.” I smile and she gives me my plate. The food looks so good. I don’t know why it was so empty when we got here but when we were seated it filled up like it was the end of the world.  
“Thank you” she smiles and leaves. We both initially start shoving our face with food. “Holy shit, this is the best burger ever” my voice is muffled by food. We spent the next ten minutes just eating silently. After we are both done the food we sit back and give a sigh.  
“So how are things going at home?” he asked. He was always curious about how things are going, he has the gift of telling when I’m lying, so I can't just say everything’s good. It’s both a blessing and a curse.  
“It’s complicated. Everyone is all tense about Peter. I don’t know why some of them don't like him, he’s sweet.”  
“I bet they just need to get out of the house, after they all were forced to retire after the whole Thanos ordeal, they’ve been itching to go on a mission. Some of them don’t react to all the therapy very well. Clint is the one we’re most worried about.”  
“Why?”  
“As you know, sadly he lost his family during the aftermath, he’s always blamed himself for them not surviving, he thinks that if he was in the fight he could’ve saved them. After he found out that Tony was making peter it got worse.”  
“What is it about Peter?”  
“Peter is made to look like a former Avenger we lost in the aftermath as well, your dad was a mentor in his life, Peter looked up to your father. Peter’s suit was perfect for what they needed, he was a kid that talked a lot, that way they had his full personality.”  
“How did they figure all this out?”  
“You can do the same thing with AI, we worked with it a bit to help with interactions.” the waitress takes our drinks to refill.  
“But where does Clint come into this?” I pick up a crumb on my plate, eating it.  
“He feels that the chance to get one person back was wasted on peter. Even though Tony has explained that they didn’t have a mental map like they had with Peter, they couldn't just use DNA, it wouldn’t work. He wanted his family back.”  
“I didn’t expect that. I knew he lost people in the aftermath but now it seems worse,”  
“We are considered that he’s his not going to the therapy sessions, we hope that the dog therapy scheduled for next week.”  
“Wait. what? Dog therapy, can I come?”  
“Of course, we thought you would like it the most.”  
“Would you like the check now?”  
“Yes, please. No, put that away, I’m saying”I take the machine and pay for the meal.  
“You are too sweet. Your father should take some notes.” my smile falls and Phil realizes what he said. “I didn’t mean that I was just-”  
“No, it’s ok, he is sorta a dick.” there's a moment of awkward silence. “Shall we go?”  
“Yes, we better go, it’s getting late.” I look at my watch.  
“It’s 7:23” we both chuckle, and then we were on our way back to the tower.

I’m feeling better now, after sitting in the lab the headache has subsided and my vision is back to normal, no dizziness, no nausea, all better. I thought Mr.stark would’ve come to check on me but no such luck. I'm still alone. “Friday pull up security footage from the den please”  
“Of course Peter.” the screen on the table switched to the feed from the den. mr.barton is asleep on the couch. Mr.stark is nowhere to be seen. Mr.rogers and mr.odinson are still playing pool. Ms.romanov is sitting at the bar, facing mr.rogers and talking, she seems upset, she’s moving her hands around in the air quite a bit, perhaps I upset her as well.

“And you know she’s upset when he misses shit, even he knows it,” Natasha says from her seat at the bar, she’s been angry at Tony for a while now. She doesn't want to start a fight by talking to him about it, so she feels stuck.  
“Yeah, I know what you mean.” I agree as I take the shot I’ve been working up to for the last minute.  
“Have you noticed that she doesn't complain unless we ask and when we apologize she just says it wasn’t our fault. How can someone like her be that man's daughter?” she takes another sip of her drink, rum and coke. Unlike me, she still drinks, but unlike Clint she doesn't get drunk every day.  
“Yeah,” I’m only half listening. At first, I would always listen to people when they came to rant to me, but after 16 years it’s getting a little much, I’m just wondering why they don’t just go to the person. I agree with everything she is saying, but what am I going to do about it? Make tony a better father? I can only do so much and I am already doing it.

I watch them talk for a bit, watching her mouth move with no words coming out, the fact you can't record audio is not the most helpful thing in the world. I can’t watch this anymore it is very dull. I think for a second, what to do? What to do?  
“Are there cameras in every room?” I ask  
“Everyone except the bathrooms sir.” no one has ever called me sir before, it’s nice, I think I like it. I think that's what you say when something feels nice.  
“Friday pull up security feed of y/n’s bedroom please.” I don’t know why I say it but I just need to see her.  
“Yes, sir.” the table switches to the feed of her room. I look around the room, still as nice as when I was there the other night. She’s not there, not in her room at least.  
“Where is y/n? In her bathroom?” I'll find her in the tower. I’ll make sure she doesn't go in the den, she’s not going to want to see that.  
“Out with mr.coulson, it is their annual dinner sir.” I sign my shoulders lowering a bit.  
“Notify me when she gets here please.”  
“Yes, sir.”  
“Can you go back to this morning please, right before she wakes up.” the feed switches to earlier this morning. She looks so peaceful, her hair looks so messy and cute. I’m not really sure what cute means but it just feels right to say her hair looks cute. She opens her eyes, closing them right after, I can tell she wants to go back to sleep but she gets up anyway walking to her bathroom. Her dark red pyjamas looked much better than my grey ones, the tank top and shorts look much more comfortable than the tee-shirt and pants Mr.stark gave me. I’m not even sure why he gave them to me. I am a bit taken aback by how short those shorts are, I feel as if a rope is getting pulled tight in my stomach. When she comes out she has a ponytail, she gets a sweater from her closet and puts it on. Leaving the room. “Follow her.”  
It switches to the hall, switching ever so often to the next camera in the hall until she gets to the kitchen, that's when she gets her coffee walks to the table. That's when I come in, scaring her. She jumps up, letting go of the coffee, it hits the floor and spills everywhere. I run towards her and lift her up, setting her on the table.  
“y/n is here now,” the screen flips to outside the front doors, where she's walking up the steps.  
“You could’ve told me sooner.” I get up and run out of the lab.  
“My apologies sir,” she says after I leave the lab.

Today was really fun, too bad Phil got called into the office. I walk up to the door, pulling the doors open. I wave to dave the security guard as I pass (cue the stan lee cameo). I walk up the small ramp to get the elevators, I press the call button and wait. Once it comes I get on, looking through the glass walls as it goes up to the top floors. When I get to the right floor I walk off, avoiding the yellow ‘wet floor’ sign and start walking to the den, I’m about to turn the corner when I hear,  
“y/n!” I turn to see Peter running towards me. He starts to slow but slides on the floor pushing me against the slate wall. His body is pushed against mine, I’m trapped between his arms, his face is inches away from mine.


	5. Why did i do this?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I've decorated my room.

I see her get out of the elevator, walk towards the den, she's about to turn the corner. “y/n!” I call out and she turns around, she stops and turns to me. Yes, I did it! I slow down but suddenly I'm sliding across the floor, pushing her back against the wall. I bring up my hand to stop from fully running into her. I end up with one of my legs between hers from me trying to move to the side, her hands are on my chest. I see her lips pull apart slightly as she looks up to me. I feel the rope getting tight in my stomach once again.  
“Good evening Peter, what’s up?” she says with a smile.  
“You can’t go in the den, mr.barton is drunk and the others are all playing pool,” I pause for a second “ I’m sure it would cause you some stress.”  
“Why thank you kind sir.” she puts on a British accent and laughs a little “I’m all for a little cuddling but these walls aren’t the most comfortable things in the world.” I back away from her. I can still feel her body warmth on mine, the feel of her coat.  
“My apologies.”  
“You’re warmer than I thought you’d be.” she walks into the den, exactly where I tried to stop her from going. “I mean I know you're not a robot, but I was still expecting metal skin.” the only one in the den is mr.barton, still asleep on the couch.   
She takes off her coat and walks over to the bar and grabs a glass and a small plate. She grabs the bottle of gin still out and poor's some on the plate and rims the glass with it, putting some ice in after.  
“May I ask you what you are doing?” she bends over and grabs a can of tonic water from the mini-fridge and puts it beside the glass.   
“Giving Clint some motivation.” She takes the gin bottle, keeping her thumb over the opening and pours the smallest amount in the glass mixing it with the ice. She opens the can and fills up the glass, putting a wedge of lime in as well. She walks over to mr.barton and sits him up. “Time to go to bed,”  
“Leave me alone,” he grumbles.  
“What if I give you this? Gin and tonic, your favourite.” she puts the glass in front of his face, he takes it and drains it in seconds, y/n takes the glass and puts it on the table. “Now will you get up and go to your room?”   
“Is Laura going to be there?” he says with a slur. y/n puts his arm around her and pulls him up. Starting to walk to his room.  
“You’ll see when you get there.” she looks at me “a little help?” I rush over and take his other arm, shifting some of his weight on to me.  
When we get to his room she opens the door and we walk in, we put him on the bed. “I feel sick,” he says like a little kid. She lets go of him.  
“Keep him sitting up” she grabs a trash can and puts it in front of him.  
“Thank y-” he gets cut off by the wave of nausea and throws up, making an awful gagging noise. Why is she doing this? Why am I?  
“Can you go get him a glass of water from his bathroom?” I go and find the glass I set there just earlier today. I fill it up and bring it back out for her, Mr.Barton has finished throwing up now, y/n hands him a box of tissues. I hand it to her and she gives it to him. After he drinks it, he started talking, the slur still there.  
“I have to go, I have to go to my house, I have to go see if it’s ok.” he tries to get up but she stopped him.  
“You’re in your home, we’re in the tower.” she says in a soft voice.

“No, no, no, I have to go to my farm, I need to give Cooper his birthday present.” Clint keeps trying to get up, I have to hold him down.  
“Peter, go get a bottle of water, a bottle of Gatorade and a bottle of Tylenol” I hear him leave the room. “It’s time to go to sleep, lay down.”  
“But she’s waiting for me.” I look at him, I look in his eyes and see the pain he feels.  
“You’ll see her one day, you’ll be with your family again one day, we’ll all be happy on the day.” I smile and lay him down on his side, he looks at me rolling on his back "stay on your side. if you throw up you'll choke"I roll him back on his side.  
“You are the best person on this team y/n, don’t let him hurt you” I smile and hear the door open, he’s back with the stuff I asked for. I stand back up and take them from Peter. He looks at Clint silently. I feel a pit in my stomach getting bigger as I stay in this room, I have to get out soon. I put both drinks and the painkillers on his bedside table and look back at him, he’s already asleep. I walk to the door, where Peter is waiting.  
“That was really kind of you to do that.” he says as I go through the door, I don’t respond I just keep walking. “y/n why did you do that for him?” I hear him turn to a light jog, trying to catch up to me. We get back to the den and I start picking up the empty beer bottles. Peter just watches me for a second, that same analyzing look on his face. After a minute he starts helping out, putting the bottles back in the bar nicely  
“I did it because he is family,” I said  
“You and mr.barton are related?” I laughed but he was serious.  
“Not that kind of family, we just care about each other. What time is it?” I look at my watch and see the time. “Ok, that’s my cue to go to bed. See you tomorrow” I turn to the door but he grabs my wrist to stop me.  
“Can you come to my room to check something. I’ve been decorating and I would be pleased if you would come to see it.”

I was grasping for straws now, I just felt the need to keep her with me, something in my brain wants to be with her. I had decorated, I changed my lamp shade from the white one to a light blue one. It was a very hard choice but I managed.  
“Can you show me in the morning?” but what if something is in her room?  
“Of course, would you like me to walk you to your room?” she looks up at me, I felt the now familiar feeling of the rope being pulled tight, pulling my organs in a knot.  
“Why Peter, aren’t you one fine gentleman. I would be honored to have you walk me to my room.” we start walking down the hall. I am beginning to think she is mocking me, the way she puts on that accent when I try and speak in a mature manner. I don’t feel hurt like when the others mock me, I feel like I am part of a joke instead of being the subject for once.  
“Are you mocking me?” I ask with what I think is a mischievous smile and she laughs, the way it’s full of happiness, it was nice to hear sure a happy laugh, you don’t find a lot of those here.  
“You already caught up on that, I thought I was being subtle” I chuckle at her sarcasm.  
“It’s quite cute if you ask me” why did I say that? It just slipped out. Just keep going,  
“Why thank you, Peter, I take that with the utmost appreciation.” we turn the corner to the spot where I pushed her against the wall. “Can we keep going or do you want to cuddle some more while we're here.”  
“I’ll save that offer for later thanks.” what? Did i really just say that? It’s like I’m being mind controlled. She laughs and I spit out a few nervous chuckles, I feel all shaky and I think I’m sweating more than normal. Do I even sweat?  
“You’re funny, how come this is all coming out now?” she asks as we turn down her hall.  
“It only started when you got here, it must be you, I don’t want to upset you, but your going to have to pay for a replacement” she laughs again, this is starting to feel good, maybe this isn’t a bad thing. We get to her door. “Here you are madam” I put on the same accent she was using.  
“How would I ever live without you?” she stands slightly on her tiptoes and gives me a peck on the cheek. I can feel my whole body heating up. “I hope that was worth all the trouble.”  
“It was worth every step” she opens her door and slips in with a final wave. I turn around and walk to my room, this stupid smile not leaving my face the whole night.

Even before I open my eyes I hear the annoying alarm going off, I set it last night. I guess I thought I was going to be all healthy but I didn’t understand that me at 2 am and me in the morning is very different people. I don’t know why but 2 am me is the best version of me, I start planning out my whole life, I’ll start meal planning, doing some DIYs, but morning me, I just throw out all of 2 am’s work. It’s a little bit of a problem.  
“Linda, why did I set the alarm?” I ask, the beeping finally stops, peaceful silence, it’s so nice. I sit up the covers still over my legs.  
“You were planning on going to visit Peter. He asked you to see him in the morning, in his room.” I stretch my legs and arms, extending them as far as I can manage, pointing my feet and unclenching my toes, my arms over my head, trying to reach the ceiling. I rub the back of my neck, shit, I think I slept on it wrong, it’s all stiff.  
“Is the massage therapist here today?” I ask Linda, the pros of having a full therapy unit in your house, full-time care.  
“Yes he is, would you like me to schedule you an appointment?” I pull the covers off of me and get out of bed, going to the mirror.  
“Yes please.” I look at my face, I look at my body, I look at all my body has changed over the past year, I mean dance for three hours every day, really does the body good.  
“Your spot is set, I’ve sent it to your phone.” I turn back around facing my bed now, looking out the window, I can see Steve and Thor on their morning jog.  
“Is Peter in his room?” if I’m going all the way over there I don't want to do it for nothing.  
“Yes, he is taking a shower.” I decide to stay in my pyjamas, what’s gonna to happen, I’m going to see Peter, not the president. I slip a hair tie on my wrist before I leave, just in case, you know if an emergency happens. I go to the door and leave the room.

After reading about how good showers can feel I decided to take one. I went to the supply closet and got a bottle of shampoo and a bottle of conditioner, they had bars of soap and towels there too. When I got back to my room and went to the bathroom it took me a minute to figure out how to turn the shower on, after I did though I found the right temperature rather quickly. I’ve been standing under the water for a while now, it’s better than I thought, it feels like the hot water is draining all my stress as it flows down my body. My hair is plastered to my head, the water flowing down my face. All I could think about was y/n. I’m not sure why but every time I tried to bring my mind to something else, I just went back to her, every single time.  
She kissed me on the cheek last night, if it was a joke why did I heat up, why didn’t I laugh? When I saw her in the security tape, she looked so cute, so peaceful. The way she looked at me when we were walking to her room, the way her eyes got bigger when she looked up, it drew me in, a lot. Why is it when I picture her in my mind I can see her in my arms, holding her hands, kissing her lips. There must be something wrong with my implants.

I get to Peter's door and put my hand on the doorknob, it unlocks and I open the door, a wave of steam hit’s me as I enter. Oh my god, it looks like there was a fire in here, there’s so much steam. Where is this all coming from? I know instantly when I hear the shower running, he’s still in there? It’s been like thirty minutes since I asked Linda where he was.  
“Peter!” I call out walking towards where I think his bathroom door is. It’s open. I’ll stay out here for now. “Peter! Are you in there?” it’s just one big cloud in there.  
“y/n? Is that you?” I hear his voice, he is in the shower.  
“You told me you wanted to show you something in the morning, well... I'm here.”  
“Oh yes, give me one second.” I hear him turn the water off and get out the shower. A few seconds later he came out with just a white towel around his waist loosely, holding it in place with his right hand. “Good morning by the way.”  
“Good morning Pete-”I trail off. I looked down to his chest, holy shit, he is ripped, my eyes trail down his pecks to his abs, 8 pack might I add, my eyes trail to the v, HE. HAS. THE. V. I mean come on. I look at his arms, how have a never noticed how defined they are, fuck.  
“Are you ok?” he pulls my attention back to his face. How can he be cute and hot at the same time? I didn’t think that was possible. I feel very happy I put on my nice pyjamas last night right now.  
“Yeah totally fine, it’s hot in here, all the steam is making me sweat, now what did you want to show me?” I have an idea.  
“Yeah sorry I was in the shower all night, anyway I changed the lamp shade over there, you said I should decorate my room and I thought that one was nice.” great, it’s behind me.

She turns around and looks at the lamp “what do you think?” I hope she likes it.  
“I have to put my hair up it’s so hot in here.” she bends over, all her hair going down, pushing all her hair to the top of her head holding it with one hand.  
I look at her body, her silk forest green pyjamas go nicely with her skin tone, the black lace giving a nice finish. My eyes travel to her shorts, the way the legs come to an upside down w the lace giving a textured shadowed right underneath. There's that rope again, this time it feels like my actual stomach is being played with now. She straightens back up facing me now, her hair up and out of her face. Now my eyes are at her chest, her body looks very… hot.  
“And you did it yourself?” she tilted her head to the side a little.  
“Yeah I liked the colour.” why did she have to wear those pyjamas here. She walks forward, closer to me, I can smell her perfume.  
“You really fit peter, what’s your workout routine?” she walks around me, I try and follow her by turning. “stay still Peter, I’m just admiring the view,” she says from behind me, I get hot and I can feel my cheeks getting red.  
“I just follow mr.rogers routine, he wrote it down for me.” she comes in front of me, she’s close now. “and your not too bad yourself.” she bites her bottom lip. She puts her hand on my chest, moving down to my abs, her touch is soft as she drags her fingers over each muscle.  
“Oh, uh, I'll go, let you take care of that.” she steps away from me, her cheeks turning red a little.  
“What? Oh”I look down, now I’m really red. “I didn’t-i didn’t mean to!” I say stuttering.  
“Not your fault, I’ll meet you in a few hours, just do whatcha need.” she walks to the door  
“What do I do? This has never happened before” she walks to my desk now. Grabbing a pen and a notebook, writing something down, ripping the page off and handing it to me.  
“Just go to this website, it’s really good, all my ‘guy’ friends use it, make sure you use incognito mode and don’t make to much noise… oh and you might want to lock the door.” she gives a small smile and goes to the door before she leaves she looks at me with a funny look “go get em’ tiger,” she leaves the room while laughing, I can hear her laughing down the hall after the door closes behind her.   
I’m still not sure what to do. I guess I’ll just check the website out first. I type the address in and wait for it to load...Oh my god.


	6. Chapter 6

“There he is!” I say loudly as Peter enters the kitchen, he blushes when the whole team looked at him. We're sitting at the table eating lunch. I made about ten boxes of macaroni and cheese, making my favourite way, extra cheesy, making a tower wide announcement that it was up for grabs, basically, just starting the 77’st hunger games. Peter takes a plate from the cupboard and scooped some unnatural orange cheese sauce and noodles on the plate, coming to sit beside me.  
“What did you get up to today brother Peter” that’s one thing Thor seems to do no matter what you tell him, we get called ‘lady’ or ‘brother’, I’ve asked him to stop, but still no luck.  
“I… um…” he looks like a deer caught in the headlights, still blushing.  
“You are very red” Steve took a bite right after saying this.  
“I told you not to use those makeup wipes so hard” he looks at me confused, so does the rest of the team. “I wanted to see what he would look like with makeup, he looked so good by the way. I have pictures,” if he wants to be believable he has to play along with a little more. “But when I give him the makeup wipe to take it off he uses it like he’s skinning a fish.” he's still looking at me confused, I give him the biggest look I can without getting seen by the others.  
“I’m not sure what you-ow!” I kick him under the table, my shoes helping me out a little, I give him the same look, telling him without words what I was trying to do. A look of realization comes to his face, “oh, yes, she applied some makeup to my face, it was quite amusing.” he took a bit of the pasta “oh my god this is the best thing EVER. What is this?” he looks at me with eyes bulging out of his head, I laugh.  
“Jesus Peter, it’s mac’n’cheese-”

We're all watching the two, all confused by the way they were acting, Peter the most. I was contemplating what Peter just said. Part of me is worried. Either peter faked tasting the food to be polite or he just actually tasted food, something that I programmed out of his noggin. Peter never faked it before when we gave him samples of food for tests. It might just be something she taught him, like the jokes. But why start doing that now? And what were they trying to hide?  
“What have you two been getting up to?” I ask suspiciously.  
“Leave them be Tony, they’re just having fun.” pepper said putting a hand on my leg, her touch calming my thoughts a little.  
“I’ve just been teaching him a few things, making him more real.” y/n says, taking a bite of her lunch. She did a good job making this, it’s just the way I like it, extra cheesy. It was a little hectic getting it, nat can get super violent when it comes to food.   
I heard y/n’s phone buzz, she checks it, getting up from the table with her bowl and spoon in hand “Now if you'll excuse me I’m going to get a massage.” she put her stuff in the sink and left the room.

“Have you seen y/n?” ms. Romanov came running into the lab where I was sitting watching Mr. Stark and Mr. Banner work. I asked many times if they wanted me to help but I was just told to stay seated as they run some tests. She looked quite panicked.  
“I think she’s at the massage therapist,” nat slammed down her bag and sat down starting to breathe heavily, pushing her hair out of her face with her hands. Mr. Stark and Mr. Banner rushed over and started calming her down. “It’s ok, why did you need her?”  
“We scheduled a tour for this corporate groups to show them how we support the building, she was going to lead the tour to show that we work with younger generation, they said they wanted to see our young talent, and they are on there way, but I couldn’t find her and I forgot to refill my meds and they said that there are more people coming than when they first asked for the tour and-” her breathe cuts her off.  
“Hey it’s fine,” Mr. Stark told me “peter go get y/n, and you go get your meds, you'll feel better after you take them. Peter will bring y/n to the lobby when he gets her” she nods and starts slowing her breathing. Mr. Stark gave me a nod so I walk out of the lab.  
After leaving I walk down the hall starting to go at a light jog, it seems like she is wanted and it is my job to help the team with whatever they need. I take the last turn into the massage unit then burst through the door. “Which room is y/n in?” I ask the lady a the front desk.  
“She’s in room 3 but she’s with ty.” I leave as soon as she said the room number, going to the white door. Opening the door and walking in the dimly lighted room.  
“y/n, Natasha needs you in-”I stop when she looks at me from the table she’s on and says,  
“Peter, I am kinda in the middle of something, can you go a little harder ty.” the therapist that is rubbing her back starts going deeper, she’s looking at me “what do you need bud?”  
“Natasha needs you in the lobby, it’s a corporate tour or something.” does she need the sheet higher on her back than it is?  
“Shit. ty, I’m going to need to postpone till later, I forgot I had this thing.” she sits up pulling the sheet around like a towel as she does, covering her body.  
“No problem, call the front desk when you are ready to reschedule” he walks out of the room, his stupid white tennis shoes making a squeaking noise right before the door closes.  
“Can you pass my clothes?” she points to the bundle of fabric on the floor. After bending over and giving her the bundle, I turn towards the door “is Nat waiting for me?” I can hear her shuffling around.  
“She’s getting her medication at the moment, she had forgotten to get the refill so she’s feeling a little under the weather.” I hear her stand from the table and start getting her shoes on.  
“Shit, did she have a panic attack?” I turn to see her redoing her hair and putting on her sweater.  
“Mr.banner and Mr.stark helped her calm down, she came in looking for you.” she comes to stand in front of me.  
“Her anxiety is so bad.” she sighs. “Are you going to move?”  
“Oh” I take a step to the side and open up the door for her, following her as she walks out, her place quicker than I thought. “If it's ok, I was never told why she was put on medication in the first place?”  
“I’m not 100% certain what exactly happened but I’m pretty sure it was during the aftermath, I wrote about it in my final project for my psychology class,” she is walking beside me  
“You might have to explain it a little for me.” I open the sliding door for her to the main hallway on our floor.  
“She was trained as an assassin, so basically she was trained to not let anything scare her, but you can only take so much for so long, during the Thanos fight, she went through a lot of shit, all of them did, when you already have symptoms of PTSD, something in it just broke them, that's why they were forced to retire, but during the aftermath she just couldn’t take it anymore. I read the reports of when she was in the treatment center, the one in the west wing, she was having like daily breakdowns, at times she had to be restrained when asleep, she once passed out because she wouldn’t eat.” we get to the elevators she looked at all three doors, none were here “it will be faster to take the stairs” she starts to walk to the stairs.  
“She went through all of that?” we get to the stairs, the glass walls showing the floors below.  
“All of the team did, it was a little hard for me to read all the reports, I couldn’t bring myself to touch my dad’s file.” we were halfway down.  
“How were you allowed to get all the files, aren’t those all confidential?” we are now on the main floor.  
“I got my principal to put in a request form, and had to get written consent from all of the team just so I could read them, but I got the essay published in a textbook for college students. But Steve had to be kept in a cell when he got back to the tower, he would attack anyone who tried to stop him, and you know Steve, the serum makes stopping him like trying to stop a train with your hands, that was when my mom was pregnant it took a while to get them all back to normal… or as normal as they could be,” we get to the front lobby where across the room nat is waiting with a group of business people. “You better go to the lab, see you later.”.

“Yeah, ok,” he turns around and goes down the hall, stopping for a second putting his hand up for a second but then just keeps walking. I walk over to nat and I can see she is a little panicked still.  
“Hey sorry, I was late. Are you ok? Linda didn't remind me for some reason, I probably forgot to put it into my computer, it’s definitely something I would do.” I give her a hug   
“It’s ok I was just freaking out a little and they showed up early and didn’t sleep a lot, it’s probably my fault” I looked over to the group of guys in suits, they definitely looked like the kinda guys who are only turned on by cold hard cash, everyone knows the ones. Fancy cars and maids, I know it’s pretty weird for me to be talking with my dad, but I feel I'm a bit better than they are. “You know you are leading this tour right?” she asks me, two of the guys are staring at me, like almost at a creepy level.  
“Yeah, I said I was cool with it,” she gives me the folder full of the material I need to lead the tour, history stuff and shit like that. She always says I should dress up a little but who can have fun in a dress, it’s sorta a difficult thing to do. So I just wore a short sleeve white crop top with like little-ribbed lines across it and a pair of mom jeans, I rolled them up a few times, so they aren’t in the way and my white convers of course, I had sunglasses holding my hair out of my face, my sweater around my waist..  
Nat looked at the group of men “this is y/n stark, she’ll be leading the tour for you, she’s very qualified so don't worry, after the tour is done there will be dinner served in the dining hall. Have fun” nat walked around the corner and I turned back to the group to be met with everyone staring at me like I was about to sprout another arm.  
“Hi everyone, as you heard my name is y/n and you are here to go on a tour but before we go I have to ask a few questions.” I pull out a bunch of lanyards and a handful of multicolour markers and a few sheets of stickers, the stickers were my idea “these badges will help us keep track of how many of you are on the tour and if any of you get lost one of our security can lead you back to me when they find you. So you can write your name on them and decorate them however you like, we can use the tables over here,” I lead them to the small office room I sorta took over when we started doing these “I also have glitter glue in my bag if you want”. All the guys sit at the table and just look at me as I hand out the lanyards.  
“You know we are adults right?” one of the especially snobby ones says with a touch of sass in his voice.  
“That’s the point, this whole building was once about training young men and women to put their lives on the line for our country, but after the earth war, we’ve turned it into a center for recovery. Art therapy was used to help my friends that were on the Avengers building recover from the aftermath. Just let your inner kid out and let your mind go wild.” it took a bit but in a few minutes they were all sitting decorating the little sheets of paper with supplies I brought. “These look great guys and guess what.” they all look at me “you get to take them home” my words are met with a small laugh.  
“When are we getting to the tour?” it was the same guy who was snobby before “we paid you good money for you to show us around, can you do that?” I almost strangle him right then and there.  
“Lucky for you we are just about to leave, all you need on the tour is your body and mind so feel free to leave anything here you don't want to carry, the room will be locked, keeping everything safe with what you keep on you will be your responsibility, as it said on the waiver you signed earlier,” all of them put their bags and belongings in the chairs they were sitting in, slipping their phones in the pockets as I lead them out of the room to start the tour.  
“For those of you who’ve already forgotten my name is y/n.” I talk as I walk to the first spot, “just so you get to know me a little more, my father is tony stark if you haven’t guessed from my last name. And I live here with the rest of the team, and to answer some questions I get when I say this, this is where I grew up and it’s home to me, I don’t know if it’s like living in a college dorm, I’ve never been to one, it is a little like my dorms in boarding school though, I’m not sure if their the same, but I do assume it’s much better, we don’t have to live with a roommate we hate” i sprinkle of laughter as we walk up the second set of stairs so far, “And I know this place like the back of my hand because I was literally running down these halls as soon as I could walk and before that I was crawling so I know my way around” we get to the training room, I open the fogged sliding glass window doors and the group follows me in, i can see thor is in here training just as we planned, “this is the training room, I know some are you are thinking ‘if they aren't still working than why are they still training like they are?’ well something that can really help someone recover after something like this, is a routine, of they worked out before the aftermath they should be working out after as well.” thor got off the treadmill and walked towards us, He comes up to behind me putting an arm around me.  
“y/n is a really good tour guide, just don't give her any trouble or she’ll-”I push him away and laugh  
“Hey, you're all sweaty,” he gives me a big bear hug knowing I'm squirming the entire time and sets me back down, he looks back at the group,  
“I’m just kidding, have fun you guys,” he walks out of the gym and past all of the men who are now puny compared to the god of thunder. I can see a few of them looking at their arms in the suit jacket and puffing their chest to look bigger than they really are, it’s hilarious.  
After about an hour of walking around, we are at our last spot, “this is the very famous lab, just hours before this my father and bruce banner was working on these very tables with these touch screens-”  
“And we were just about to start again but it seems that we will have to wait for all of you to move along” it was my dad and Bruce, walking into the lab, also part of the tour, each stop is another Avengers job to ‘show up’ and make this a little more exciting.  
“My father, Tony Stark, and bruce banner” I motion to them. This stop usually took the longest, everyone wanted a photo with these two.  
“Thank you y/n, you’re getting really good at this,” my dad said putting an arm around me. When he first started doing this I thought he really was giving me a hug, he was getting closer to me, but no, this was all for the tour. “How has she been treating you all” there was a grumble of replies. "pepper and I are just so proud of what she’s become” he kisses the top of my head, every time I hear those words I almost start crying but that would put on a bad show so I just have to play along.  
I make eye contact with Bruce and I can see what he’s thinking, can hear each word under the mask of happiness, he’s saying he’s sorry because he can see what I’m thinking.  
“What is her job?” that same snob asks dad, looking over me, fully ignoring me. He’s been doing this the whole tour, everyone is done with him “Does she just show people around? why are you proud of that when you’re who you are?” I want to punch him in the face for what he just said”  
“What is your name?” my dad says calmly  
“Tyler, Tyler Jackson, I'm the top salesman here, none of these guys make even half of what I make. So I was just wondering how you keep cap’ or Thor from tapping that because you couldn't stop me,” he said with a smirk. He gave me a creepy wink and a half nod. My dad lunged forward, grabbing the guys collar and pushing him against one of the tables. I go to stop him but bruce stops me.  
“You never talk about my daughter like that, I’ll destroy you, you think these people will help you but judging by the way no one is stopping me i think they agree with me,” Tyler looks around and all of the other guys are looking at him with their arms crossed, some even nodding and chuckling “if I ever see you again” my dad puts his hand up “you'll regret even coming here in the first place” the hand of his iron man suit wraps around his hand making the small hissing noise heating up getting ready to fire “now get out of my building” two security guards came into the lab grabbing both of his arms and pulling him out of the room to the exit “sorry about that guys, he’ll be fired before he can even get to his car” dad straightened his suit and sent the iron hand back to its resting place. one of the guys started to clap slowly the others joining in, my dad came back over to me and Bruce “ok, thank you guys for coming and I apologize for the incident just now but I hope you enjoyed this tour and enjoy some light refreshments in the cafeteria” i lead them out of the room, feeling really happy, my dad just stood up for me.


	7. A short rest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> why don't you two let off some steam

I run into the lab after the group left, they are working in there as usual “oh my god, that was awesome dad, the way you just grabbed that guy and pushed him against the table and said GET OUT OF MY BUILDING” I make my voice super low and bruce spit out the coffee was drinking, laughing his head off. “That was the best”I give him a big hug, he puts his arms up awkwardly as if he'd never been hugged before. I look up and see his face, looking at me with a grimace. I back away slowly, the lump welling up once again.  
The room was silent for a good minute before my father spoke.  
“You could’ve gotten the group here a few minutes earlier if you took the elevator, you were off schedule.” is all he said. I don't know what to say, I don’t know what to do so I just run out of the room just as fast as I ran in, my face burning from embarrassment, anger, and sadness.

“What are you doing?” Bruce asks me. What does he mean ‘what am I doing’, what is she doing. “She was happy, she gave you a hug, and you told her she was late?”  
“She was. by five minutes, how is that my problem?” I get back to working, turning my back to Bruce.  
“You can’t fit more than six people on the elevators here, there were ten people on that tour, not including her, she took the stairs so they could actually show up, and she sent all of us alerts with Friday to show where she was so we could be ready, you think she’s the one being stupid” i turn to him again “but you should really just look in a mirror.” Bruce walks out of the lab bumping into my shoulder as he walked.  
When she gave me that hug I felt this feeling in my stomach I haven't felt for a really long time and it scared me, I don’t want to lose her, she really has made me proud, even if she doesn't know it, she really has.

I spent the whole time she was going on that tour fixing up the lab that Mr.Stark and Mr.Banner hardly use, I thought she would want to watch those tapes and I thought it would be fun to do it like a movie night. Pepper told me to look on Pinterest for some ideas, so I checked it out. I moved most of the tables together and secured them down so no one will fall. I went around to all of the team and asked to borrow some blankets and pillows, I ended up with a pile about the size of Everest. I sent them all up on the tables and got like ten bags of chips from the kitchen, and put them all in bowls and placed them around the room I dimmed the windows and set up the tv. I asked Natasha to go into y/n’s room and grab a pair of pyjamas for her to change into because what she wore to the tour did not look too comfortable, I set the bag she gave me on the table beside one of the bowls of chips. now the only thing left is to find y/n.  
“Friday where is y/n?”  
“She’s in the dance studio, she’s always there when she wants to get her mind off something” I turned on my heels and walked out of the lab.

After the fight, I ran right to my room and changed to some dance clothes. A black sports bra and a black pair of shorts, putting my hair up, getting it out of my face. I ran to the dance studio, and hooked my phone up to the speakers, playing my playlist for dance. I start doing the warm-up I memorized in school, the one I did every day in the studio there, getting flashbacks of my teacher's voice yelling at us to keep going as I ran.  
Now I can start to dance.  
I put on the song from the solo I was working on before school was out for summer.  
(a/n you can choose any dance you like. If you don't know and I personally like lovely- Billie Eilish & Khalid - Paris Cavanagh choreography, if you find another you prefer to go ahead and picture that”)  
I let the moves lead my body around the floor, my steps gliding my thoughts away from my fight.  
After about five times doing the solo, tweaking my limbs when I know I did something wrong, I even asked Linda to tell me after each time to tell me if my facial expressions were ok, I didn't want to look like a deer caught in the headlights.

I could hear the music playing as I waited outside the door, looking through the little window to the beautiful image of y/n moving inside. The sweat drenching her body highlighting each muscle on her body and making the flyaway hairs stick to her forehead. It awoke something inside of me, the rope in my stomach tearing into threads. How does she move so smoothly?  
When the movement is over I slowly open the door, setting the sound of her breathing heavily rushing in my ears. The room smells slightly of feet and body odour but the sight of y/n’s body blocking it out of my mind.  
“Peter! Hey, whatcha need?” she puts her hand on her hips, her chest still moving up and down rapidly.  
“The way you did that, it was breathtaking, what was that?” a breathy laugh escaped her lips as she turned around and walked to her phone.  
“I forgot you’ve only been alive for like three weeks. Has no one told you about dance yet?” I look at the floor slightly ashamed  
“No, I’m sorry” my voice is barely a whisper and I take a step back trying to get away from the awful feeling in my gut.  
“I don’t know how to explain it, but you move around, doing tricks sometimes, and most of the time it’s to music. It’s a way to show your feeling, like talking with your body.” she stretches her toes on the floor, pushing the balls of her feet into the floor.  
“Someday you have to teach me but right now I have something to show you,” I grab the handle of the door and lean on it, lifting some of the weight off of my feet.

“A surprise?” I unplug my phone and head to where Peter is standing  
“Yes, follow me.” he leads me out the door and down the hall. He tells me about it as we walk.  
“Well I set up the tv in one of the spare labs and set up some blankets and stuff so it would be comfortable, so we could watch the lab tapes, I thought you wanted to.” even cuter than I thought, really sweet even.  
“You are just the best ever.”  
we get into the lab and I let out a scream, like just actually scream, after the scream I say, “you are just straight of Pinterest, I’m dying” peter blushes and I walk around the table.  
“I just thought you could use some cheering up. Mr.banner told me what happened with your father, I’m sorry about it and I do not think Mr.stark should’ve treated you like that” I look around avoiding eye contact with Peter, I don't want to talk about this right now, I went to the studio for a reason.  
“I should go have a shower and change, I’m really sweaty and probably don’t look the best” he picks up a bag from the blanket-covered table,  
“My room is just next door, you can use the shower in there, I’ll wait in here, I asked not to get you a pair of pyjamas, I didn't want to go through your stuff, she put all the stuff in this bag. Go take your time, I’ll be in here when you’re ready.” I take the bag and walk to the door  
“Thanks, Peter. I’ll just be a minute.” I walk out of the lab and go into Peter's room. It’s just as empty as ever. Does my dad not let him keep anything in here? I head straight for the bathroom. It’s just as bland as the main room. I open the bag and pull out the note inside, Natasha's handwriting making me smile, she used my green pen so she must’ve written it in my room when choosing clothes, it reads ‘I bought these for me but they didn’t fit, you can have them, they are super soft but too small for me and were a little too ‘teenager’ for me, enjoy’ with a smiley face at the end.  
They were just like my other red silk pyjama set but these have black lace on the collar and on the side of the leg, they’re cute and I can feel the soft silk flowing between my fingers.  
At the bottom of the bag she but a bralette and a pair of underwear. She also added my black sweater in just in case I got cold, she knows me too well.  
“Hey I was wondering where you wanted to start-... woah” Peter looks at me for a second his jaw hanging slightly open, what if his Cricut malfunctioned and he just blows a part of his brain to mush.  
“What? Are you ok?” he blinks a few time and shakes his head as if trying to get water out of his hair.  
“Nothing, nothing is wrong, you just look quite good in the change of clothes you chose.”  
“Why thank you.” I smile as I climb on the table where Peter was sitting, grabbing a handful of chips and stuffing them into my mouth, crunching down with that satisfying crispy noise.  
“Where would you like to start, when they were starting to put me together or when they are setting up implant and the rest of the ‘ingredients’ you could say”I lean back on to one of the pillows against the wall.  
“I’m good with starting at the beginning, it’s nice when you see the picture come together.” my voice is still muffled by the potato chips I inhaled seconds before.  
“I like that mentality. Let's start”  
“Creating human tape one,” my dad said from the screen  
“Are you really filming this?” I heard Bruce's voice from off screen and my dad looks to the left, laughing a bit. He looks so excited. When Bruce came into the frame I almost passed out even though it was only three years ago he looked so different. I automatically smile when I see them both so excited to start working.  
“We are starting out work on our humanoid assistant, today we start the project that will change our lives,”  
“Can we start.” Bruce leaned back far and made a huge groaning noise. He did the thing. He did the thing I do when I want to annoy him. He almost fell he bent back so far.  
“Oh my god, what is your problem?” he laughed  
“It’s something y/n does, I'm in a really weird mood. I had a red bull” he picked up the can from just out of the frame and took a sip.  
“You need help.” they both laughed. They looked like me and my friends, goofing around, laughing.

I watch her watch the screen, looking at her smile watching her face be highlighted by the pixels. She looks so beautiful, I’ve never felt this before about someone. I thought I cared for the rest of the team, but that did not care, that was them being in charge, them telling me what to do, the way I feel for her is care, I need her to be safe.  
I use the small screen in the table to make the room colder. One night y/n gave me a list of movies to watch and I saw one of the guys in one of them do this so why not give it a try.  
She starts pulling the blanket around her feet and shoulders and slowly moving closer to me. “Are you cold?”  
“Sorry, I probably should’ve worn pants.” she pulls the blanket tighter around her self.  
“Here” I move closer and put the blanket around both of us, putting my arm around her, she put her head on my chest. “I told you I’d get this cuddling later”  
“That you did,” she said.  
As we watched I started to feel my eyelids getting heavier and heavier. I can hear y/n’s breathing getting slower and can tell she fell asleep. I close my eyes, focusing on each word that Tony is saying. She pulled her body closer to mine, putting her leg over mine. I feel myself drifting away into a slumber for the first time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So exams are kicking my ass, so there might be a bit of uneven uploading over the holidays. Sorry if that causes any problems but there is just a lot of stuff going on. Thanks.


	8. Anger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You know she doesn't love you.

I look at my watch as I walk to the spare lab, it’s midnight, I needed a piece of equipment I haven't used in forever, I was trying to see if I could make an iron suit for y/n. I thought she would love it and it would help make up for the fighting we’ve been having, show her I how much I care in a way I can actually do. I hadn’t used the machine since I made my last suit and that was at Stark Tower, and that was before we moved here. We just suck it in there for the time being and that turned into forever. I have all the pieces planned out but I need to make the parts and put it all together. As I got closer I started hearing voices, my voice, Bruce's voice. Is someone watching lab tapes? I walk through the doors, into the lab, I stop in my tracks as soon as I see the image in front of me.  
It’s y/n and Peter, they’re watching the tapes. No their not just watching the tapes, they’re cuddling. He has his arms around her and her head is on her chest, I saw her nuzzle into him with a small grumble. they’re both asleep, that’s not a big deal for y/n but Peter is sleeping, we took that out, we programmed his body to use food for all his energy instead of needing sleep, but why is he sleeping? Someone moved all the tables together and covered everything with blankets, the lab looks cozy.  
I look at the screen and see me. I pick up the remote off the floor and paused the tape. I look back at Peter and y/n. Which one of them started this, which one of them pulled the blankets around them both, which one of them started cuddling first, are they holding hands?  
I back out of the room, slowly, not wanting to wake anyone up, not wanting to make it worse. I have to go to bed, I should go see pepper and talk to her, make sure she’s ok. But what would be wrong? I don’t care I have to get out of here.

I slowly wake up, the sound of the lab making the transition from dreamland to real life a little easier. The whir of computer fans and the small noises of people all around the tower getting up and ready for the day.   
The warmth of Peter's arms calling me back to dreamland, his hand around me, one of his fingers lazily tucked under my bra strap. I push myself up, careful not to push on Peter, using the table, that was seriously comfortable, his hand slipped off and hit the table with a poof. I pull my legs out from under the blankets and tuck peter back in. I watch him sleep for a second, his face at peace, not a note of worry, I run my fingers through his hair, pushing one of the brown locks off his face and back into place. He shifts his hand in his sleep, it comes to rest on my ankle, I smile and lift it off and place it on his chest.  
I slip off the table and grab the black sweater from the bag nat put together. As I leave the rooms I slow the closing of the doors, making sure they don’t slam, I don’t want to wake up.  
The hallways seem brighter than normal, everyone more upbeat than the day before. I walk out to my room changing into my Adidas sweatpants and a white t-shirt. After sleeping on my shoes I leave my room, I think I’ll go to the office portion of the tower, see what my dad’s employees are up to.  
I stop into the kitchen and grab a bottle of cold-pressed juice from the fridge, plopping one of the metal straws we use into the glass bottle. I walk through the halls, watching people walk in for the day. Some wave at me, some even say hello, some hold open the doors for me, some just walk past, not knowing who I was. I loved it.  
I go outside to the training wing. The weather is beautiful, the sun is out but there are enough clouds that it’s not too hot, and there’s a nice breeze in the air. So what I said in the tour about that this building is all about recovery wasn’t fully true, we still hold a training unit for the shield but it is much smaller, we only have twenty groups of trainees now before it was about one hundred so we have downsized quite a bit. I’ve been coming since I could walk, the team wanted me to grow up strong and able to hold my own so they started popping me into sessions. I was always the worst one there but as soon as I started to go to elm I missed the grind, the dance classes there helped bring me back.  
“Is that y/n stark?” I heard Rhodes say from behind me. He used to be my dads best friend but they have drifted apart slowly, he still has the job as the head trainer here. Even with the lower half of his body he still kills the troops every day with how intense his training is. I give him a hug, I haven't seen him in four years since I started high school. “You’re all grown up now.”  
“High school beat me up a little.” we both laugh. we start walking as we talk  
“So what brings you to my little neck of the woods?” we turn a corner, he’s going to the main field, he was going to lead a session.  
“Just wanted to stroll through memory lane, see what I’ve been missing?”  
“You could join this group, we are doing some basic training, they did running yesterday so that's not part of the program, but abs are definitely on the agenda” I nod  
“Can I? I would love to show you how much I’ve improved.”  
“Ok, missy let's see whatcha got.”  
I go to the change room where he says the rest of the recruits are waiting. When I open the door and walk in everyone goes silent, watching me walk in. the age range is 25 maybe 26 and they’re all looking at me like I’m a baby crawling in. I go to the back and get a water bottle and a hair tie from the boxes we provide. I turn around and look at all of them, giving a small wave “hi I’m y/n.” no response, “ I’m just here for one class, I used to do this when I was young and I wanted to try it again.” still nothing “excited to work with all of you”  
“Get out here!” they all stood up and left without a word, well that was a little embarrassing. I walk out and join the rest of the group on the grass.  
Rhodey waves me forward, I come and stand beside him. “This is y/n, she’s an old friend and wanted to see what we were doing, don’t tease her if she can’t do what you all can see is only 18 so let’s go easy on her.” that was even more embarrassing, why did he have to say that. “ok let's get started, we’ll have a light session today for you y/n” can you stop? “80 pushups”  
I look around at everyone else starts doing push-ups. I blast through them faster than the everyone else. When I put my knee down and sit up I look around, all of them are staring at me and Rhodey is smiling.  
“Well, I guess you really are grown up.” he looks at the rest of the recruits “you guys have some competition. Good job y/n.” 

When I wake up I feel like I'm being pulled out of the water, feeling my mind slowly come back into focus. My first time sleeping was rather good, I felt like I was watching a movie with me in it before I woke up though, is that what they call dreams. I look to my left reaching for y/n but she is nowhere to be seen. She must’ve already woke up, she’s probably in the kitchen eating breakfast or perhaps making coffee. I push myself to a sitting position. I look out the window and down to the trees, they look more spectacular than I remember.  
I get off the tables and walk out of the lab, right away shocked by how many people there are in the halls and how they seem not to be looking at me like I’m not even here. It’s wonderful.  
When I get to the kitchen and don’t see y/n I get a slightly uneasy feeling, what if she’s hurt. “Friday! Where’s y/n” I ask into coffee flavoured air.  
“She’s in the training wing” has Friday always talked so robotic?  
I walk into the hall once again, walking at a faster pace this time “is there a shortcut I can take?” I ask trying to get there as soon as possible.  
“Take the second right and cut through an office to the den to the elevators”I follow her instructions but as soon as I enter the den I regret it.  
“What are you doing here?” it's Clint and he’s already drunk at 10 in the morning. I go to back out of the room and go the long way around but he stops me “you don’t have to run away, I don’t bite. Now what are you doing here?” he puts down the glass taking a step forward, nearly tripping on the couch.  
“I’m just passing through, going to see y/n”  
“Well go ahead” he gives a mock bow, telling me to move forward. I move forward cautiously, ready to move back within a moments notice. I get about halfway across the room until Clint says “she doesn't love you.” I stop in my tracks.  
“What did you say?” I say not looking at him.  
“You think we can’t tell you to love her, I didn’t even think plastic and metal could love anyone”I slowly turn around “she’s doesn't love you, just thought you would want to know that before you embarrass yourself in front of all of us.”  
“Stop.” I squeeze my hands into fists, digging my fingernails into my palms.  
“Stop what? telling the truth? What are you going to do about it.” I hear the doors open and a few of the team members walk in but my eyes are fixed on Clint.  
“What’s going on?” it’s tony.  
“Just letting the robot know he’s broken,” clint’s month pulls into a stupid smirk and he picks up his glass, taking a sip of whatever toxin he’s ingesting now.  
“You don’t need to be rude Clint” Steve must be here too.  
I try and hurt him back as he hurt me, say nasty things just like he’s spitting “Who are the women and children in the photo you broke” the whole room goes quiet “do you love them?”  
“Shut up” his voice is dripping with threat.  
“I’m sorry since I’m so ‘broken’ i don’t take requests, now who were they? Wife and children?” he throws the glass at me but I catch it before he can do anything “missed me.”  
He charges at me, I mirror him running forward. When we meet at the middle he goes to punch me but I catch his fist, spin it around his back, catching his ankle under my foot, tripping him, I let go of his fist, letting him fall. He falls to the floor, trying to stand back up but I kick him back down with my foot. Now I realize Steve and Tony are trying to get through the barricade of furniture we accidentally made. Everything sounds like I'm in a tunnel, echoing more and more by the second, my vision getting doubled, and I’m starting to lose my balance. I feel myself fall, everything going black before I hit the floor.

Once they started fighting it was like two seconds before it was over, we were still trying to get over the couch and chairs they pushed when we saw Clint laying on the floor, Peter standing over him. How did he beat clint, even when he’s drunk he can take out Steve, how did Peter beat him? I look at Peter and see he has a nosebleed, and he’s swaying slightly, well not very slightly. That’s not good. All at once he falls to the floor and starts seizing as we get past the couch.  
“Peter! Can you hear me”I drop to my knees and try and stop him. I don’t know what I’m doing? This has never happened and I’m not sure on what to do.  
“What about Clint?” Steve asks  
“He’s fine, take bigger hits than that. We need to get Peter to my lab now,”

“You’re pretty good”  
“Thanks, I try my best,” I say to one of the recruits as we walk onto the changeroom. `   
When I get my phone and see the text from my dad saying ‘GET TO THE LAB NOW! EMERGENCY’ i run as fast as I can there. I run through the doors, sliding to a stop right in front of my dad.  
“what's the emergency? Did someone have a break?” my voice is breathy and hoarse, from the running. I can see my mom and Bruce in the corner, I look around for Steve and Natasha.  
“No one had a break, calm down.” my dad fidgets around, shifting his weight from one foot to another.  
“What happened, where’s Peter?”  
“We think one of his implants malfunctioned and damaged part of his brain, we’ve tried to fix it here, but we don't have the right tech, we’re going to have to go to a friends lab. Do you want to come?” I look around, my mom was nodding  
“Some of us have to stay here to run the building but everyone else is going, it’s beautiful over there and you’ll be going for a few days.”  
“I’m always up for a little vacation, where are we going?” my dad smiles and steals a glance at my mom.  
“Wakanda.”


	9. Waterfalls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Before we start let's have a tour.

“Are you packed?” Steve came into my room and with his duffle bag.  
“You said it was going to be hot so I packed a lot of shorts,” he looked at my bag and smiled. It was the one he gave me.  
It was army green and has like 100 pockets on it, right inside there’s a tag that has the name ‘bucky Barnes’ written in black ink. I spent so many hours looking at all the other things he has of Bucky's, listening to all the stories he tells. He even told me he used to put newspapers in his shoes to look as tall as bucky.  
“I’m sure Shuri will lend you something if you don't have it. She’s about your size” I zipped up the bag and slipped it up on my shoulders, of course, Steve took it from me holding with his. The same shared looks. “We are taking the quinjet, Natasha's flying.” I walk out of the room after saying goodbye to Linda and locked the door.  
We get to the landing pad and I see nat, Bruce and dad standing at the mouth of the jet, holding their bags.  
“We are going to stop to get snacks on the way,” my dad says and I nod aggressively. “Everything's stable with peter so we can go” we all get on a sit in the chairs. Bruce goes to where Peter will be held, just in case something were to happen  
“Where are the seatbelts?” I ask feeling around the chair, looking around for the safety net I grew up with.  
My dad sits beside me “here,” he hands me the buckle from around my shoulder. That’s why I couldn’t see it. I'm not used to sitting in these chairs.  
“Thanks,” I pull out my phone and start to look at Instagram.  
“There’s a lot of places there for you to put on Instagram, it’s breathtaking there,” he says, I look at his phone and see my profile. “I didn’t know you did volunteering.” he was on a group of photos of me with monkeys and baby leopards, and a group photo of me and my friends, we all had huge spiders on our hands.  
“It was during March break, we helped out at an animal shelter in Bora Bora, you signed the permission form, I mailed to you and mom” dad looked down and rubbed his thumb over his knuckles.  
“That’s amazing, you really did a lot this year.” I smile and look down.  
“Thanks”

“What does everyone want?” we’re at the mall near our house. It has a gigantic food court and target that’s full of snacks too.  
“Everything. I want everything.” Natasha says looking around at the colourful fast food store signs.  
“Yes.” we both laugh and start to get into lines  
Once we leave we all have bags full of fast food and snacks. Of course, we almost sold out, these are superheroes, Steve goes through calories as a baby goes through milk, and I just like snacks.  
Once we’re back on the jet I go back to the seat I claimed as mine. My bag was under the bench like seats, the straps making a checkered pattern on the black case with brown straps. I placed the plastic white an red bag on the seat neck to me as I sit down, pulling out my phone. Before I can open the phone to my messages I look to where Steve and Tony are standing behind Natasha. They are talking about what snakes they got. Steve got more food than both of them combined, and Natasha just got about as much as I did. My dad got only snacks, he’s that kind of person  
I slip my phone in my suitcase and walk over to them, “whatcha talking about?”  
“Your dad thinks he has the best food but we keep telling him he forgot a meal.” Steve was saying, Natasha, laughing as she flies us through the sky.  
“But he has a bunch of different little things when we just have a meal and a few snacks,” I say putting on my best lawyer voice.  
“See! Someone understands”  
“But”I continued “you could’ve got both” Steve and Natasha laugh and dad smiles. This is fun. None of us are fighting, we’re all talking like a normal group of people. To my surprise, it continues for about half the flight.  
As I watch the jet go through the forcefield my jaw drops and I gasp, it’s beautiful. The amazing trees and Greenlands, the breathtaking waterfalls, all the gorgeous buildings. Steve smiles and looks at me.  
“It’s amazing right.” he guides us down to the landing pad in the on the biggest building. There was a woman there wearing a jumpsuit with gold detailing all over it. Her hair was all tucked in a head wrap. The cloth was beautiful, blue, red and orange patches make up the design with black detail, striping over the colour. She had her hands on her waist and had a nose piercing, that's awesome. She looked about 35 but in a graceful way, all women want to age, just like my mom, her age suit her.  
The doors to the jet open letting in the warm sunlight, I suddenly regret wearing my sweatpants, sure they were comfortable in the air conditioning but know I’m already sweating.  
“Hello ms.shuri. How are you?” Steve asked putting out his hand for her to shake.  
“I’m great and please Steve, it’s just Shuri,” she laughed and took his hand pulling him into a hug “it's nice to see you all again,” she gave my dad and nat a hug as she spoke, her accent is so beautiful, it’s so. finally coming to me “you must be y/n. Steve has told me so much about you.”  
“Thank you so much,” I try to stand taller and more ‘proper’ if that makes sense, she is royalty “it’s an honour to be able to see your lab, I’ve read so much about it.” she smiles and chuckles.  
“I’ve been told you are a nerd like me and your father, I’m excited to see what you're capable of.” we share this look that’s almost like she’s my age like she’s not grown up at all. She turns to the rest of the group, “but before we go and work in the lab, we are going on a little tour,”  
“But Peter needs-” my dad starts  
“Already taken care of, I'll show you to where you’ll be sleeping, then change into something more comfortable,” she looks at me, “a swimming suit would be a wise choice,”she whispers with a wink then turns back to everyone “we are going on a little trip.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy holidays everyone! :)


	10. Best friends match

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> what happens when you get to Wakanda?

I was the last one to get assigned a room. it seemed like she was really thinking about where she was placing us, my dad was in the room closest to the lab peter would be in, Steve was in the room closest to this floor’s gym, Natasha's room was closest to the spa, and bruces was near the gaming room. When we got to my room I was still in shock by the doors and we haven't even gone in there yet. They were taller than the door at the front of the Avengers building, and that’s saying something. they were black stone and had gold door handles. But the stranger things was they looked like there was lightly running through the stone like it had energy in it.  
When the doors open I actually say “holy shit, fuck off”. I slap over my hands over my mouth and start running down a string of apologies. Shiur just laughs.  
“It’s ok, that was my reaction when I saw it too.”  
It was all floor to ceiling windows except one wall with the bathroom door and really high ceilings, the view made me want to die, I could see everything's, people turning into little ants running down the streets. The bed in the center of the room was bigger than mine, it was bigger than my parents, it was like a king size and a half. It had a little art around the room but it was mostly all empty.  
“There's a small lab back here if you wanted to make something.” she put her hand on what I thought was just a wall and a door opened up to another room. Another room! Are you kidding me?  
This lab was better than the one I was using at school, probably even better than my dad’s. I was looking around like I was in heaven, running my hand along the white machines that I could never name and looking out the windows.  
As she kept leading me around the room I got more and more excited, “all the windows in here can’t be seen through on the other side so don’t worry about changing in the bathroom or anything like that. If you put your phone down on one of the tables it will connect to the speakers and you can play some music, walls are soundproof so don’t worry about your neighbours. Oh yeah, I have a gift for you.” She opened one of the closets and pulled out a small box.  
“You really didn't have to do all of this.”  
“I wanted to, you reminded me of myself when I was your age, it’s nice to see someone so happy about what I find interesting, others would just want to play in the arcade and swim in the pool but I can tell with your two weeks here-”  
“We’re here for three weeks? I thought we were only going to be here for two.” she nods and I bit my lip trying not to dance around in happiness.  
“But I can tell you are really going to make the most of your time here.”  
“Let's just be clear I will be doing those other things too, but I will most definitely be spending many hours in that lab.” we both laugh  
“Open it.” she motioned to me.  
I pull the ribbon and paper off and open the box it’s in. “oh my god. Thank you so much” it’s an anklet. A simple gold chain with purple beads hooked onto every fifth metal loop. I give her a hug and she stands up, “get ready, we’ll leave in about a half hour. It’s going to be fun, I promise.”  
“Will do.” she smiles and leaves the room. I finally let out everything and fall back on the bed, letting out a “yes” I stretch out my back, pulling my lumber off the bed, arching my back. After changing into the swimsuit I brought. It's the one I got from the school swim team, it had the school logo on it. I bought a couple but it was just the first one I grabbed from my bag.  
I put the anklet on and a pair of shorts and my pair of convers. I pulled my hair up and clipped it out of the way.  
I look out the window for a second, looking at the skyline. I pull out my phone and open up Instagram, putting a pic on my story. I grab a small backpack and slip my phone in it. I open my door and slip back in the hallway.

Peter’s vitals are looking good but the implants in his brain are looking a little worse for wear. That must’ve been the thing that caused the seizure and the aggressive behaviour.  
“How is he?” Bruce was in the door to the lab, he was wearing swim trunks and a white t-shirt as well as some really high-quality dad sandals. I still haven't changed and we are probably leaving now.  
“His vitals are fine but we are going to have to replace the implants.”  
“You're going to replace them?”  
“Yes, we have to replace what’s broken”  
“Yeah I guess, are you coming or are you staying here?” he fixed his glasses up on his nose.  
“Just give me a minute. I’ll be out in a sec’, just have to finish up here”  
“We’re outside when you’re done. We’re just waiting for you and y/n.” he walks out the door. I put down my clipboard and go to my room, I don't want to keep anyone waiting.

I walk out into the hallway and down the hallway and towards the place Shuri told me we were starting the tour. I just want to have fun, we never really have a normal summer at the tower.  
I saw the group of out of place half team Avengers, Shuri was there too and she’s wearing sweatpants and an old tank top, I could see between her pant leg and her shoes she was wearing a matching anklet that she gave me.  
I can see Steve is pushing his hand on his shoulder, rubbing and pushing into the muscle. It’s what he does when he’s stressed. It’s probably because he doesn't know what’s about to happen, he likes to plan things. I walk up to look at him, right away he knows I know he stressed. We share a look and I just give him a hug. Sometimes, it’s the best medicine.  
When I see my dad isn’t here I look at Bruce. He just shrugs.  
“We have to go if we want to be there for the sunset.” we start to walk down the hall,  
“I’m here, sorry I got lost I'm here” my dad shouted from the end of the hall, jogging towards us.  
“He’s coming up on the finish line, just a few more feet and he’s won first place” Steve put on a sports announcer voice and looks at me, cracking up. “Will he pass y/n or will she continue her rain as the fastest kid on the Avengers,” Bruce and he makes a finish line, stretching out their arms. I take a few steps back and start to run in slow motion.  
“He’s catching up, but look she seems to be speeding up”I start to go faster. I and dad are now neck and neck in our fake race. Natasha is laughing her ass off. I break through Bruce and Steve's arms just before my dad. We all laugh and start walking, starting the tour I’ve been waiting to on since Shuri talked about it.


	11. the perfect best view

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The last stop on our tour will be the falls, it has the best view.

“And here is our last tour, the falls, and this is where we well be swimming and watching the sunset. It's the best view here.” Shuri slips off her bag and pulls out blankets and little pellets. At first i didn’t know what she was planing but she put one in a cup and pours some water in it turns into this bread that tastes as good as the bread i had in paris. “If you’re brave you can jump off that cliff over there, the waters deep enough to do it.” she winks at me.  
I pull off my shorts and top and slip off my shoes. Looking around to see what the rest of the team are doing, when I see Shuri and nat are getting in the water I follow.  
“Holy shit, it’s so warm,” I say surprised  
“Language,” Steve says behind me.  
“What the fuck? We can’t fucking swear anymore?” nat shouts and I look back at Steve and die laughing at the expression on his face.  
“Can you please not use that language around me,” he says.  
I run over to him and starts making circles around him, “shit, fuck, shit, fuck, shit” I say running around him. Everyone laughed.   
“That’s it,” he picks me up and walks deeper in the water till he was waist high and throws me in. once i get to the surface i splash him with as much water i can. This starts a full-on splash war. That turned into a chicken fight.  
When i was in school in my dorm studying for class and doing homework that i was going to be having a chicken fight with the queen of Wakanda, inches away from a waterfall, with my dad, well helping fix an made from scratch human, i would’ve called you crazy.

“who wants chicken and who wants PB-and-j,” Shuri asks holding out a big bag of sandwiches. They were all drinking beer but I and y/n had some fruit punch juice boxes. We were sitting on a blanket wrapped in towels but hungry as a pack of dogs.  
“Chicken please,” nat said putting up her hand.  
“I want chicken!” y/n yell. Tony nearly jumps out of his skin.  
“can I have PB-and-j please,” he says looking at her with a look that made her giggle.   
I take a chicken one and unwrap it, taking a bite. It’s really good. roast chicken, all the good toppings, it’s like they were made by a chef. Well they sorta were.  
“Love these!” y/n yells with her mouth full.  
“Thank you. I will give the chefs your kind words. We’ve been here for like three hours already and it’s starting to get darker.  
“So y/n tell me, what kind of stuff do you do at your school?” Shuri asks and i see y/n’s eyes light up. She might hate going to the school but when she’s there she loves learning all the stuff they have available.  
“Well I’m taking as many courses as I can in my normal schedule as well as two classes in the evenings and clubs on the weekend, normal stuff like math, science, and english.-”  
“She’s in advanced level English and college level maths and sciences,” I interrupt her.  
“Really?” Shuri says and y/n nods, with this proud, happy, and slightly embarrassed face.  
“Yes and after normal classes are done i got to dance class for about three to four hours depending on the day. Than i would study in my dorm for like four hours, my roommate hates me, i would be up till like 1 in the morning with the lights on, working on homework and stuff ”  
“How are you still alive?” Tony asks and she laughs.  
“A mix of energy drinks, coffee, food, and anxiety,” she says “when others were out like partying I was like building stuff in the lab.”  
“What were you building” Shuri looked at me as I answer like I was the most interesting thing in the world.  
“I almost got the hand form your suit dad.” he choked on his beer, coughing for a bit.  
“What? How?”  
“I got it to put on properly and move with my hand right, but when we tested it, it sorta blew up.” this made Steve start choking.  
“The armour blew up on your hand?” I laughed.  
“No, we put it outside and used a remote trigger. we fired it at some watermelons witch have the closest density to human heads.”  
“Why did you want it close to human heads?!” Steve's voice made us all laugh  
“I’m going back in the water now!” I stand up and run into the water, Steve calling after me and the others laughing.  
I lay in the water, floating with just my face out of the water, watching the sky turn from blue to pink to red to the dark blue of the night sky flecked with clouds and birds flying home to their nests. The water was made my hearing fuzzy, only the small grumbles of the others talking and making it through. My hair making a flowing cloud around my head. The flowers nat put and Shuri put in my hair to take and Instagram picture floating in the water beside it.  
I take a deep breath, sucking the oxygen into my diaphragm then plunge my body under water. Staring up at the ripping water tinted with the strokes of orange and pink. I blow out bubbles, watching them float to the surface, exploding at the bottoms of the flowers.  
I feel my lungs ache for the oxygen in the air above me. I push on the sandy and rocky floor, and jet to the surface. Sucking in the cool air and pushing my hair out of my eyes.  
“That was almost a minute!” Steve said, clapping.  
“At school someone challenged me and I got to a minted and a half,” I say and he laughs.  
“You’re getting better! Are getting out of the water soon?” he asks “I have a towel I’ve been keeping warm.”  
“Does that mean you’ve been sitting on it?” I can tell it’s a yes by the way he’s laughing  
“Come on, your dad’s making a bond fire and we have marshmallows!” he raised his eyebrows at me and I started walking out of the water.  
“Since you ask so nice” I sit down and wrap myself in the fluffy towel.

“How many have you had?” I ask nat.  
“two, and fuck you tony, you’ve had three so take that” I give her the finger only to be matched with her’s.  
“Keep your voice down y/n’s sleeping,” she’s laying down using one of the blankets as a pillow and another one as...well as a blanket.  
“Oh, he’s a dad now!” she said looking at Steve.  
“Shut up” we all laugh.  
I look down at the dying embers of the bond fire. “What time do you want to start working on peter?” I ask Shuri  
“Whenever you want to start, you can go ahead, I’ll come and join around 2 o'clock” she took a sip of her drink.  
“Ok cool, what time is it?” I ask after looking at my wrist forgetting I didn't bring my watch.  
“11,” nat said.  
“No wonder she’s asleep, we have to go back” we all start cleaning up, waiting till the last minute to wake up y/n. When we woke up she just stands up and walks to the jet and lies down and goes back to sleep.   
“How are we getting her to her room?” I ask Steve and nat, they both shrug  
“I can get someone to help when we get back  
When we get back to the palace Shuri calls someone into the jet.  
“Can you take y/n up to her room please Amari?” he was tall, as tall as Steve and fit, his hair is short and curly. He has clothes that look like the ones I gave Peter. Simple and clean.  
“Yes, my queen” he picked up y/n and carried her off the plane. 

I woke up in my bed in the clothes I changed into after I got out of my bathing suit. I look out the window, it’s dark out. I push the comfy blankets off and slip my feet out onto the floor, standing up walking over to the wardrobe and pulling out my pyjamas, pulling off my jeans and tee and slipped on a pair of pyjamas. I go out into the hallway looking around. Wheres the kitchen in this place? I walk around for a bit, still looking for something to eat.  
“Can I help you?” someone asked from behind me. I turn around and look at the one who spoke. “If you are hungry I can make you some breakfast.”  
“Yes, please, I’m starving”  
“Go back to your room, I’ll bring it to you when the cooks are done making it. Is there anything you would prefer?” he asked and I shrugged.  
“Whatever is good with me” I usually had the same thing every day for breakfast.  
“A surprise then, I will bring the plate to your room” he walks away and I return to my room. What if I check out some of the labs. I open the door and walk down the two steps from the doorway into the lab. The air smelled sanitary. I sit down at one of the tables and look around. When I put my hand down the table it lit up. Ok, I can work with this.  
I pull out my phone “bring up my idea note file. I want to try some things out.”

“If we put those implants in he will die tony!” I yelled. This argument has been going on for an hour already. Shuri just told us that there would be no way to use the implants.  
“There has to be a way, we can figure this out,” Tony said looking down at the equations he wrote, looking for a mistake.  
“The way his body is repairing now and the way the others one malfunctioned would send him into anaphylactic shock once he woke up from the surgery,” Shuri said calmly. Sitting at the desk. fidgeting with an eraser.  
“Tony we don’t need the implants, you’ve already got him back,” I said, tony stopped what he was doing “you don't want to lose him again, do you?”  
This comment is the beginnings a silence.  
y/n walked to the room in the middle of it. “What you guys doing?”  
“Working on Peter,” Tony asks  
“What’s up with him?” y/n asks  
“Implants don’t work anymore,”   
“fried due to stress melted like popsicles” I added  
“Jesus bruce.” y/n giggles “have you tried to make new ones?”  
“Right here.” he holds one up.   
she gasps a little, taking it from him, looking at it, turning it around in her fingers. It smaller than a bottle cap. “Wow”. she looks over to the capsule peter is in... I could tell what she was thinking. he lay in it like snow white, his pulse on the side of the glass cover. He looks so pale and still, he could be dead.  
“What did you need?” Tony asked   
“Just coming to find Shuri, she said she wanted to see my designs,” she paused “you can come and see them too if you wanted”  
“Send me the blueprints, I’ll take a look” y/n smiles and walks out of the lab, followed by Shuri.


	12. This will make things better

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Do I want this? am I sure?

I creep around the hallways, it’s late and I need apart from the other lab. I knew it was there from what I went to the lab earlier today. When I got to the door I pause before I opened it, hearing my dads voice inside.  
“Maybe I should just continue without the implants, if it’s the way to get you back then maybe it's the right thing to do”I opened the door slightly, peeping inside.  
My dad was looking at the capsule peter was in. it was scary seeing him in there.  
“Why did you have to come up in the first place, you could’ve stayed on earth and been safe, you didn’t have to die like rest of them.” what happened between Peter and my dad. Peter did say they got his brain map or whatever from a past teammate.  
My dad looked at his watch and stood up, “I should go to bed” he pushed in his chair and walked towards the door.   
I ran around the corner, not wanting to be seen. I heard him turn off the lights and close the door and walk the other direction, down the hall and to his room.  
I go into the lab and close the door, I keep the lights off, just turning on a lamp.  
What if I start the repair processes. There’s a button right there that will start fixing him without the implants. And that’s what my dad said he wanted. To get Peter back. And if this is the only way. They’ve done all the work I can just push them alone a little bit. Show my dad I am just as smart as he his, helping him make his new design.  
I walk up to the capsule.  
it's just right there. The button saying ‘begin repair process’. I can help them all.   
I can see it.  
My dad walking in to see Peter being repaired. And when he comes to see who did it and I tell him he’ll take me out of school and we’ll all be happy forever. No one will have a break and we can be a happy family.  
I push the button, the screen changing to a little pop up saying ‘are you sure?’.  
Am I sure? Do I want to do this? Yes, I do, this will make everything better, make life a breeze.  
I close my eyes and push the button. Leaving the room and running back to mine, going to sleep. Excited about the next day


	13. Which one of you did it?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stop talking back to me!

Were all eating lunch in the main dining room, for only four of us the whole table is full of food. My dad is still not here. Shuri said she told someone to go get him but still no sign.  
“This is delicious,” I said taking a bite of the many different foods sitting on the table. It was a feast fit for a queen and it had to be because of Shuri.  
“I’m glad you liked it,” she said  
The dinner was going fine until we heard someone yell. Then my dad burst into the room.  
“Which one of you did it!” he shouted, he was infuriated, a vein popping out on the side of his head, his face red.  
“Did what?” Bruce asked.  
“Ok, so we're playing stupid now. Fine. which one of you started the repairing” my whole body turns to ice, my stomach dropping.  
“We have no idea what you're talking about it,” Shuri says trying to reason with him.  
What did I do? What the fuck did I do? My whole body's going numb from the level of panic my heart is getting into, my fingers buzzing.  
“You two are the ones who’ve been talking about starting it without the implants, literally this morning!” he swung his hands around as he yelled  
“I don’t think any of us did it. Maybe it started by itself, or you started it by accident-”  
“Oh, bullshit!”  
“We didn’t do it tony!” Bruce yelled things get heated.  
“Than who did?” dad said.  
“I did,” I say quietly, looking at my plate. I push the little bits of food around on the plate. “I heard you talking about Peter and I thought you would like it, I’m so sorry”  
“What would make you think that”I jump at his shout, his loud voice drains the colour from my face.  
“You said that you just wanted him back, and Shuri said that was the only way. I just wanted to show you that I could do stuff like you and-”   
“You ruined my work, you ruined all our work”  
“I'm so so sorry” I look up. The expression on my dad's face was on I’ve never seen before.  
“This is why I don’t let you do stuff in the lab, this is why I send you away!”  
“I said I was sorry” I want to get out of the room. I want to run away.  
“Stop talking back to me!” he yelled, his voice.  
“Sorry” I stand up “I’ll go”I run out of the room, ignoring the calls from Steve following me down the hall.

I watch her run out of the room, towards the room she was staying in.  
“What the hell is your problem,” Steve said getting up. I roll my eyes looking out the window, listening to his footsteps leave the room, in the same direction y/n left.   
“She was trying to help you!” Bruce said standing up  
“How was that trying to help”   
“She said she heard you say you wanted him back, that’s what made her do it” why is he trying to explain this to me like I’m five, I heard what she said.  
“Let’s just go, we’re not going to get anywhere with him,” Shuri said putting his hands on his shoulder  
“But-” she just shook her head pulling him out of the room. I sit down at the table. Putting my head in my hands and listen to Bruce venting about me as Shuri brings him down the hall.

I run into my room, straight into my lab, locking the door behind me. Hearing the sound of Steve trying to open the door, calling out from me from behind. I knew he couldn’t break them if he tried. I wipe my eyes and pull out a pair of earbuds, blocking out everything, blasting the first playlist I can find. I grab a tool and start working on my project. Putting everything into my work.  
This is all bullshit anyway. Did I really think I was going to have a dad? Yeah. this is all my fault. Letting myself fall for this act. I tried for so long what did I think was going to change it this time. I so stupid, for doing this, for doing all of this.


	14. I just want to talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> you've been down here for four days.

“You've been down here for the past four days,” Amari said from his seat at the table. I focus on the underbelly of the amour I'm working on, my whole upper body laying under it on the creeper.  
“I’m almost done. I just need to figure out what’s going around with this one board. Can you pass me the-” he puts the right tool in my outreached hand without me even having to finish asking for it “thanks”  
“Maybe you should go for a walk around the building, eat a meal with your friends” he offered, receiving a chuckle. I pull myself out from under the huge project I’ve been working on since the big fight. I sit up, pulling the rag out of my pocket wiping my forehead and my hands.  
“I can eat here,” I say standing and grabbing the half-eaten sandwich off the plate taking a bite, making sure to very extra. “And I said, I’m almost done.”  
The coveralls Amari gave me were covered in black mechanics grease and my hair is in a messy bun, with a bandana keeping the loose strands off my face. I’m sure these black converse are ruined. I put the sandwich back done and slid back under.  
“Queen Shuri said Peter was done repairing, you could go with them take them out of the pod”  
“Will my dad be there?”  
“yes but-”  
“No” Amari sighed, making me laugh. “If my dad wants to do something he can come to me, I already said I was sorry” I push my head out “until then I’m good with your company” I slid back under.

“Amari said she was not interested in coming so we can start I guess,” Shuri said disappointed to me, I don't even think Tony heard her. I sigh and put rest my chin on my fist, my elbow probing me up “ I'm sorry Steve” I shrug my shoulders and say nothing.  
“I’m am starting the video now,” Bruce said to Tony who was running around getting the last little things done. For someone who didn’t want this done, he was really excited.  
When the video was started recording and they said all the stuff about what was going on they started opening the pod. I didn’t even want to be here. I wanted to see y/n, make sure she was ok, anytime I tried to see her Amari said she was working or eating or sleeping, I haven't seen here in four days and it was killing me. This was different than when she leaves for school. At school, she was far away and there was no way I could see her in person, but the fact that she’s just a locked door away feels worse. I’m not mad at her, I know she’s mad at tony but why is she just blocking us all out. And she’s not the only one fighting. When they’re not in the lab tony and Bruce are fighting non-stop. Tony is just arguing with everyone.  
All this fighting is making my head hurt.  
“Opening the pod doors,” tony's said as the doors slide up so we can see Peter fully now.  
“Waking him up now,” Bruce said pushing a button.  
We all go silent,   
waiting  
waiting for something to happen.  
waiting and waiting.   
Waiting for something that never comes.  
Slowly I watch tony’s shoulders fall. He turns around and walks out, Bruce watching him leave.  
“What went wrong?” Bruce looks at Shuri who is just as shocked as him.  
“I don’t know”  
“We checked everything twice”  
“I...i don’t know”  
I get up and walk out, there's nothing else in there that is interesting to me. I’ll go try seeing y/n now.  
“When I get to her room I go in, this was the easy part, now I just have to get past Amari. I knock on the locked lab door. Waiting for a few seconds before Amari opens the door. The sound of music being played escaping the lab  
“Is y/n in there?” I ask trying to see past him. He was as tall as me and only 19.  
“She’s working at the moment,” he said his face apologetic.  
“I just want to talk to her for a second” he takes a look back at her. I can see her working on her project behind him. Doing the funny thing she does when she’s focusing.  
“y/n!” I say loud enough for her to hear over the music. She looks up and meets my eyes. She stands and walks over to the door, grabbing a rag. She pauses the music and comes out of the lab shutting the door behind her  
“Hi,” she says “I’m really busy, what did you need?” she asks. Amari is still standing behind her like a bodyguard.  
“I just wanted to talk”I keep glancing between her and Amari. Why is he still here?  
“He can be here,” she says.  
“What?”  
“You're looking at him like he’s supposed to go away”  
“I just want to talk about what's up”  
“We’re only here for another three days and I still have to finish this,” she points over her shoulder “can we talk later”  
“It’s been four days” my voice getting frustrated  
“Well, I’ve been working” she’s getting frustrated now too.  
“If you just say sorry your dad will be fine”  
“Why do you always have to make it about him,” she groaned and rolled her eyes as she walked towards the lab “this is why I don’t want to talk to anybody, you guys always make it about him” she opened the door to the lab.  
“Wait” I call after her.  
“I have work” she away into the lab.  
I try to follow her but Amari stops me. Stepping into the doorway before I can get through. “What are you doing?” I look at him.  
“She said she was busy,” I look over his shoulder where y/n is facing away, moving tools around on the table “I'm sorry mr.rogers but she’s upset right now and doing this is not helping, ” he says quietly.  
“But you are?”  
“I am only doing what queen Shuri has asked of me and that is to keep y/n happy and if working in the lab is the way she finds happiness than that's what she’ll be doing” he steps into the lab, closing the door before I can stop him. I try the handle for a few seconds, I bang on the door loudly, telling him to let me in, before giving up and walking away.

What did I do wrong? Bruce and Shuri checked my work. I’ve been walking in the village for an hour now, it was long past dusk but the village was still full of life. Think over every little thing. I made sure the measurements weren’t wrong.  
Everything in my brain is messed up right now. what did I get wrong? Shuri made the pod so that wasn’t it  
I did all the calculation so they have to be right.  
I walk past a storefront where a father and daughter are writing stuff on a sign, prices of food on sale. The father writes something down but the daughter quickly erases it, writing something else down, the father laughing at her correction.  
“If you use order of operation, which you did up to this point, where you accidentally flipped these, don’t worry, happens to everyone.” I can hear y/n voice in my head.  
I messed up one of the equations, but which one?  
I run back to the building. I have to find y/n


	15. i'm sorry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> look, I'm just going to get to the point.

“Amari!” I see him with a plate of food, probably bringing it to her. He stops walking turning to me.  
“Good Evening Mr.stark, did you need my assistance with something or can I continue you on delivering ms.y/n her midnight snack?” he asks  
“I need to talk to y/n” he opens his mouth to talk but I stop him “I want to say I’m sorry for yelling at her. She was trying to help me and I only saw what I wanted, and what I wanted was wrong. And now I need her help”  
“Follow me” he leads me to her room. She's in her lab but he stops me outside the door.  
“She will not want to help you if you make this about you. That's what she's mad about,” he says at the door, holding the plate. He opens the door. I walk through the door, it closing behind me, Amari staying out of the room.  
The first thing I see walking into the lab is a huge version of the hulk buster armour, it must be twice as big. It’s amazing. The colours body is all black with little gold accents, the head of the suit had cat ears on it. She was making a black panther version for Shuri. It was badass looking.  
I saw legs sticking out from under one of the feet. It’s big enough to cover all of her upper body. The legs on her pants rolled up slightly below her knees, the converse she was wearing we just like the ones I had.  
“Finally Amari Can pass me the socket wrench” she stuck her hand out, the wrinkles in her hands and nail beds have grease in them. The coveralls have grease stains on the sides and front of the thighs from her wiping her hands there. This reminds me of younger me.  
“Hello? Amari?” she waved her hands around. I gave her the tool. “Thanks, what did the cooks make for dinner today?” she asked, she sounded so happy.  
“I don’t know exactly but it looked like some kind of curry,” I said. She pulled herself out from under the foot. Looking at me. “Hi.”  
“Hi,” she says quietly  
“This looks fantastic,” I say motioning to the armour.  
“Thanks” she’s looking down, avoiding eye contact.  
“Look I’m just going to get to the point. I’m sorry, I was being stupid,” I say trying not to be the selfish idiot I always am. “When you heard me that night I was seeing the side of the story that my brain said was wrong even though it was the right one, let alone the one I wanted. I just wanted to… I don’t know what I wanted but it was stupid” she chuckled “you were so right for starting the process and you’re probably the ones who are keeping all of us together.”  
“You’re probably right” she smiles “you really need to get your priorities in order”  
“Tell me something your mother hasn't told me already”I sit beside her on a creeper that was at her tool bench. “Why are you so quick to forgive?”  
“I went to boarding school with a bunch of teenage genera that are surprisingly good at making drama and grew up with a bunch of superheroes who fight like their eating candy, Forgiveness is in my blood”  
“Sounds about right.” we both laugh “would you kill me if I asked you to do something right now?”  
“What is it?”  
“I think I messed up my work with Peter and I would love to have you look over the equations I made.”  
“If you figure out what the hell is wrong with this goddamn foot,” she said frustrated, pushing her hair out of her eyes like her mom does when she’s frustrated.  
“Ok let's take a look,” I say slid under looking at the exposed motherboard, it was complicated but neatly put together. “Is this where all the controls are? For all the body?”  
“No, I'm not an idiot. That's just there for the blaster on that foot.”  
“What if it gets ripped off?”I fiddle with a few of the components.  
“it’s only the second rate controls, all the main controls are in the chest and head.”  
“What if they rip off?” I pull out one of the panels.  
“You won’t need controls.” the two little lights on the panel light up  
“Why?” I slide the panel back in its place.  
“You’ll be dead”  
“Well you’re not wrong” I close the opening in the foot. I look at the grip she put on the bottom of this. It’s pretty good, will work on many different terrains. I slide back out sitting up. “It should be all fixed up.”  
“What was wrong with it?” she asked frantically.  
“Two of the wires needed to be flipped,” I say as I walk to the door “now let's go, it’s your turn”

When I see the number of equations I get a little excited “bet you 50 bucks I’m done in less than an hour” I say  
“It took me all week so you’re on,” dad says sitting at the desk behind me.  
“Can you get me a coffee, so I can work a little better?” I asked, fluttering my eyelashes.  
“What? You want me to get your coffee?”  
“Yes, I haven't had any in like four hours” I wine.  
“This comes out of you hour” he points at me as he walks out the door.  
When he comes back he has two cups of coffee and a couple of chocolate bars, setting them down on the table. I circled the answer to the equation that was wrong and the corrected answer I put down. “I’m done.”  
“What!? No way, it’s been like 20 minutes”  
“You used the order of operations up until this point but here you flipped these. So it’s you should be giving him this much adrenaline” I pointed at the circled answer. it was too little by just one decimal place “that's why he didn’t wake up”. I take a sip of the coffee he brought, sitting down at the table. I look at the up of what I thought was coffee and then at dad. “What is this?”  
“It’s decaffeinated tea, it’s good for your stomach”  
“I didn't think you would do me dirty like that dad.” I put down the mug.  
he throws one of the candy bars to me “it’s midnight” I open it and take a bite. “We have very similar problems”  
“What do you mean?” I ask  
“We just keep working until we either fall asleep where we’re sitting or were done. I saw the ways those boards were put together, the work was clean but I can see tried work when I see it. And that is some amazing coffee-buzzed-24-hour-with-no-sleep-work.”  
“Yeah, That might be a little bit of the problem”.  
“When's the last time you went to sleep in a bed?”  
“Four days” we both laugh. “Maybe I should go to bed.”  
“Yeah maybe. You might turn into me.”  
“Aren’t we going to wake up Peter?” I didn’t want to miss that.  
“We can do it in the morning, now go.”  
I stand up and leave the lab after the many comments from dad and go to my room. The sleep really hitting me now. I just pull off the coveralls putting on a pair of shots to tired to put on a shirt. Just slipping under the covers in my sports bra. Falling asleep as soon as I hit the pillow.


	16. You got that from a movie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> we have to go wake him up!
> 
> but I just sat down.

“Is that who I think it is?” Steve says when I walk into the dining room for breakfast. When I woke up it was a bit of a start, after falling asleep in different parts of the lab for four days waking up in a bed was a surprise.  
“It is”I sit and take a scoop of the many different breakfast dishes “it’s been a while” I chuckle.  
“Nice to see you again”  
“Yeah sorry, there was a little bit of a problem but we’re all good now”I take a bite of toast, trying to absorb the awkward silence in the crunchy bread.  
“You really had me worried,” Steve said looking at his plate.  
“Yeah. I wasn’t in the best mental state, had to be in isolation for a bit” I look at Steve, him still not looking at me  
“But you let Amari be with you?”  
“I don’t know what you want me to say, Steve, I’m sorry but I just needed to be in my lab”  
“You could’ve let us help.” he looks at me with the warmest smile.  
“Ok, I will make a mental note of that for next time. Now can we drop this” we both chuckle?  
“Good to have you back.” he reached over and patted my shoulder.  
“You started without me?” dad said walking in the room. He grabs a piece of toast and sits in one of the seats.  
“We have to go to the lab, we need to wake Peter up,”  
“I just sat down!” he laughs  
“I need to wake him up though”  
“You just go and do it”I look at him a little shocked “you saved the whole project and we’ve already seen him wake up once. You go and do it, you can do his first test and such. come and find us when he’s up and running.”  
“Are you sure?” I ask excitedly  
“Yes. go”  
I run and give him a hug “thank you thank you thank you! You’re the best!” I run out of the dining room and to the lab

“Wow, seems like things are going back to normal.” nat says with a smirk.  
“It’s a wonder what the word sorry can do,” I say taking a bite of food.  
“You even let her wake him up by herself” nat’s voice is disbelieving.  
“She wants to do it so I let her!”  
“Wow, I wonder how long this will last?” she says. I throw an orange slice at her laughing.

I walk into the room, seeing Peter in the same pod, still as peaceful as ever. I jump right to it. I type the new equations into the pod and get it ready for waking him up. I open the pod doors and feel a wave of excitement rush over me. I haven't seen him in a while. I’m really excited to see him awake, hear him talking to me, give him a hug. I check all his vitals, making sure he’s healthy and ready to wake up. I push the adrenalin button giving him the right amount. it will take a second for the shot to kick in.  
I wait  
I wait for the moment he wakes up  
Wait to give him a hug  
Wait to hold his hand  
Wait to hear his voice  
His eyes flicker open. I see the chocolate brown orbs look into mine. The corners of his lips turn up in a small smile.  
“Peter, can you hear me?” I say, my voice is a little higher than I would like it to be.  
“I can hear you loud and clear my lady,” he says in a British accent, making me smile “miss me?”  
“You have no idea,” I say and he sits up, holding his head swaying a little “woah! You don’t have to move so fast.” I run up to him from the control board putting my hands on his back, helping him stand.  
“I’m ok, don’t help me,” he said pushing me away from him getting his balance, starting to walk around more.  
“We still have to do some tests.” I tell him and he rolls his eyes, “hey! Don’t sass me” I say and he walks over to me.  
“I’m sorry, just haven’t walked in a few days, but one more thing before we start the tests” he gives me a big hug, “ I missed you a lot y/n” he whispered. The way he’s talking is so human. Not as stiff as before. I love it.  
“Ok mr.charmer sit down so we can do these tests” he sits on the table and I take out a flashlight, checking if his pupils dilate in the light. I’m following the list dad sent me on my phone.  
“What has been going on since I had my little episode?”  
“Nothing much, a little family drama, but we’re all good now. Deep breaths” I check his lungs.  
“Anything else going on?”  
“We went swimming by a waterfall, it was really cool” I check his blood pressure, looking at the machine. I catch him staring at me from the corner of my eye.  
“Why are you staring at me so much?” I laugh.  
“You’re beautiful, I like looking at beautiful things,” he says and I smile, blushing.  
“You got that from a movie!” I laugh  
“A movie you love.” he points out. He stands up “come here” he pulls me towards him.  
“What are you doing?” he put on hand on my waist, moving my hand to his shoulder with his other hand then grabbing my other hand in a ballroom dance position.  
“I told you that someday we would dance together” he started swaying.  
“There’s no music.” I chuckle  
“So?”  
“Oh my god”  
We sway to a slow song that wasn't there for a few seconds before he looks at me one more time.  
“Can I do one more thing I've wanted to do for a while now?”  
“What?”  
He leans his head down and kisses me, just a quick peck, but it was still a surprise.  
“Holy shit You just kissed me,” I say quietly.  
“Yeah, I feel a little light-headed” we both laugh “you know what would make me feel better though?”  
“What?” I ask with a small smile  
“Another kiss.” he face was full of mischief  
“Oh my god” I smile and pull him in by his collar, giving him a proper kiss this time, feeling my mind drift off into the clouds.


End file.
